Plata Germán, Baxter Nielson T, Hawkins Troy B, Huntimer Lucas, Nagireddy Akshitha, Susanti Dwi, Reinbold James B
BiomEdit, Inc., Fishers, IN, 46037, USA.
Mercy BioAnalytics Inc, Waltham, MA, 02451, USA.
Anim Microbiome. 2025 May 12;7(1):45. doi: 10.1186/s42523-025-00413-z.
Liver abscesses caused by polymicrobial infections of the liver are a widespread problem in feedlot cattle production. There are currently no effective methods for the early detection of liver abscesses or to predict antibiotic efficacy for their control. Although gene expression and microbiome differences have been reported in the rumen of abscessed and normal animals, liver abscess biomarkers using less invasive tools can facilitate managing of the disease in the field.
Here we report the results of two studies measuring the fecal microbiome composition of steers that did or did not develop liver abscesses, with or without antibiotic treatment, along a 7-month feeding period on a high-concentrate diet. Our results indicate a limited impact of liver abscesses or tylosin on fecal microbiome composition, with time on diet explaining most variance in the fecal microbiome. Interestingly, in both studies, antibiotic treatment led to larger differences in the variability of the fecal microbiomes between abscessed and normal animals compared to controls. These differences were limited to specific sampling times in each of the two studies. Although multiple amplicon sequence variants with differential abundances according to liver abscess state were identified, there was no overlap between the two studies.
Our results suggest that the fecal abundance of individual microorganisms may not be a robust predictor of liver abscess susceptibility across sampling times or diet regimes. Fecal biomarkers of liver abscess susceptibility might be developed with a focus on other aspects of the hindgut microbiome, especially for animals receiving preventive antibiotics.
由肝脏混合微生物感染引起的肝脓肿是育肥牛生产中普遍存在的问题。目前尚无早期检测肝脓肿或预测控制肝脓肿抗生素疗效的有效方法。尽管已报道脓肿动物和正常动物瘤胃中的基因表达和微生物组存在差异，但使用侵入性较小的工具的肝脓肿生物标志物有助于在现场管理该疾病。
在此，我们报告了两项研究的结果，这些研究测量了在高浓缩日粮上为期7个月的饲养期内，是否发生肝脓肿、是否接受抗生素治疗的阉牛的粪便微生物组组成。我们的结果表明，肝脓肿或泰乐菌素对粪便微生物组组成的影响有限，日粮时间解释了粪便微生物组中的大部分差异。有趣的是，在两项研究中，与对照组相比，抗生素治疗导致脓肿动物和正常动物粪便微生物组变异性的差异更大。这些差异仅限于两项研究中各自的特定采样时间。尽管根据肝脓肿状态鉴定出了多个丰度有差异的扩增子序列变体，但两项研究之间没有重叠。
我们的结果表明，个体微生物的粪便丰度可能不是跨采样时间或日粮方案的肝脓肿易感性的可靠预测指标。肝脓肿易感性的粪便生物标志物可能会着重于后肠微生物组的其他方面来开发，特别是对于接受预防性抗生素治疗 的动物。
