Description of the vaginal microbiota in nulliparous ewes during natural mating and pregnancy: preliminary signs of the male preputial microbiota modulation.

ABSTRACT: The vaginal microbiota plays a key role in animals' health. Understanding its diversity and composition and associated changes occurring through the reproductive cycle represents valuable knowledge to disclose the mechanisms leading to dysbiosis and eventually to infection. Even if the human vaginal microbiota has been thoroughly studied, scarce research has been conducted on the vaginal microbiota of livestock. In this study, 16S rRNA gene-based sequencing was performed on vaginal samples of ten nulliparous ewes at three different sampling points: before the estrus synchronization protocol (T0), at the time of estrus before mating (Testrus), and the day of the pregnancy diagnosis (Tpreg). Preputial samples from the three males collected pre and post-mating were also analyzed. Firmicutes,

SUBMITTER: Barba M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10808482 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature