Rajbhandari Rajesh Man, Forcina Giovanni, Manandhar Prajwol, Rajbhandari Pragun G, Napit Rajindra, Raut Roji, Shrestha Seily, Sadaula Amir, Gortázar Christian, Alves Paulo Célio, de la Fuente José, Queirós João, Karmacharya Dibesh
Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal.
Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 4;15(1):11596. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-89402-5.
Gut microbiome influences host health and well-being. Co-occurring hosts may exchange disease-causing bacteria belonging to these microbial communities. Therefore, monitoring gut microbiota composition in wildlife and humans is paramount to prevent zoonotic diseases, thus protecting and strengthening public health. We characterized diversity and abundance of the gut microbiome bacterial component across mahouts (captive elephant trainers and handlers), their pachyderms, livestock and wild herbivores in and around Chitwan National Park (Nepal). Firmicutes and Bacteroidota were invariably the dominant phyla. In humans, the relative abundance of Firmicutes was higher, the alpha diversity lower and beta diversity different compared to other host categories. Livestock and wild herbivores displayed similar alpha and beta diversity due to the presence of Proteobacteria, Actinobacteriota and Verrucomicrobiota. Elephants had a higher alpha diversity, and a significant beta diversity compared to other mammals. Our results suggest that taxonomic affiliation and diet niche are the main drivers of gut microbiota composition. Nevertheless, Mycobacterium and other potentially pathogenic bacteria genera were detected in elephants and livestock other than wild herbivores. These findings shed light on microbiota sharing and interlinking in each environment, thereby highlighting the importance of conservation medicine to better our understanding of health in co-occurring host species.
肠道微生物群会影响宿主的健康和福祉。共生的宿主可能会交换属于这些微生物群落的致病细菌。因此，监测野生动物和人类的肠道微生物群组成对于预防人畜共患病至关重要，从而保护和加强公共卫生。我们对尼泊尔奇特旺国家公园及其周边地区的驯象人（圈养大象的训练师和饲养员）、他们的厚皮动物、家畜和野生食草动物的肠道微生物群细菌成分的多样性和丰度进行了表征。厚壁菌门和拟杆菌门始终是优势菌门。与其他宿主类别相比，人类中厚壁菌门的相对丰度更高，α多样性更低，β多样性也不同。由于变形菌门、放线菌门和疣微菌门的存在，家畜和野生食草动物表现出相似的α和β多样性。与其他哺乳动物相比，大象具有更高的α多样性和显著的β多样性。我们的结果表明，分类归属和饮食生态位是肠道微生物群组成的主要驱动因素。然而，在大象和家畜（而非野生食草动物）中检测到了分枝杆菌属和其他潜在致病细菌属。这些发现揭示了每种环境中微生物群的共享和相互联系，从而突出了保护医学对于更好地理解共生宿主物种健康的重要性。
