Bacterial communities along parrot digestive and respiratory tracts: the effects of sample type, species and time.

ABSTRACT: Digestive and respiratory tracts are inhabited by rich bacterial communities that can vary between their different segments. In comparison with other bird taxa with developed caeca, parrots that lack caeca have relatively lower variability in intestinal morphology. Here, based on 16S rRNA metabarcoding, we describe variation in microbiota across different parts of parrot digestive and respiratory tracts both at interspecies and intraspecies levels. In domesticated budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus), we describe the bacterial variation across eight selected sections of respiratory and digestive tracts, and three non-destructively collected sample types (faeces, and cloacal and oral swabs). Our results show important microbiota divergence between the upper and lower digestive tract, but si

SUBMITTER: Schmiedova L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10830831 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature