Legitimate and Reliable Determination of the Age-Related Intestinal Microbiome in Young Piglets; Rectal Swabs and Fecal Samples Provide Comparable Insights.

ABSTRACT: A prerequisite for reliable microbiota analysis is having an effective and consistent sampling method. Fecal sampling, commonly used to study the intestinal microbiome, might not be suitable in all situations, especially considering the potential difficulties in obtaining fresh feces from young animals. Indeed, this study shows that the success rate of collecting fecal samples from young piglets (<2 weeks of age) was very low. Therefore, we evaluated rectal swabs as an alternative sample type (to feces) for studying porcine microbiome development and performed a comparative analysis of microbiome composition obtained from fresh fecal samples and rectal swabs in 15 healthy piglets at seven (6 piglets) and 20 (9 piglets) days of age. Three samples (fresh feces, rectal swab before and after d

SUBMITTER: Choudhury R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6702655 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature