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. 2022 Apr 7:9:815944.
doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.815944. eCollection 2022.

Effects of Maternal Factors and Postpartum Environment on Early Colonization of Intestinal Microbiota in Piglets

Yongshi Li  1 , Yadan Liu  1 , Yijia Ma  1 , Xusheng Ge  2 , Xiaona Zhang  3 , Chunbo Cai  1 , Yang Yang  1 , Chang Lu  1 , Guoming Liang  1 , Xiaohong Guo  1 , Guoqing Cao  1 , Bugao Li  1 , Pengfei Gao  1
Affiliations

Effects of Maternal Factors and Postpartum Environment on Early Colonization of Intestinal Microbiota in Piglets

Yongshi Li et al. Front Vet Sci. .

Abstract

Intestinal microbiota significantly influences the intake, storage, and utilization of body nutrients, as well as animal growth and development. The establishment of microbiota is affected by many factors, such as delivery and feeding modes, antibiotics, disease, and the surrounding environment. In this study, we selected Chinese indigenous Mashen and Jinfen White pigs as the study subjects. To explore the source and factors affecting the piglet intestinal microbiota, 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed to analyze the microbial composition of the feces, saliva, vaginal secretions, and colostrum of parturient sows, feces and saliva of newborn piglets, and surrounding environment samples. The results showed that the microbiota of the saliva of sows and piglets is structurally similar to that of the environment and is dominated by the phylum Proteobacteria, including Acinetobacter, Actinomyces, and Pseudomonas. The core genus in the vaginal secretions and colostrum of sows was Pseudomonas. Among the fecal samples, the core bacterial genera in sows before and after delivery were Clostridium sensu_stricto_1 and Christensenellaceae_R-7_group, while in piglets at 1 d of age, Pseudomonas and Escherichia-Shigella were most abundant. These results indicate that microbiota in feces, colostrum, and vaginal secretions of sows more easily colonized piglet intestines through a symbiotic effect. The environmental and salivary microbiota could also affect the early colonization and succession of the intestinal microbiota of piglets to some extent. This study provides a theoretical basis for sow delivery protection and early nursing of piglets and background for the research and development of microbial agents to improve piglet intestinal health.

Keywords: 16S rRNA; characteristics of microbial colonization; microbial diversity; piglets; source of intestinal microbiota.

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Conflict of interest statement

XG was employed by Inner Mongolia Mengniu Dairy Company Limited. XZ was employed by Allwegene Technologies Incorporation. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Results of sequencing coverage of Mashen pig and Jinfen White pig. S, indicates the saliva samples; C, indicates the colostrum samples; F, indicates the fecal samples; VS, indicates the vaginal secretions; E, indicates the farrowing bed environment; JS, indicates Jinfen White sows; JP, indicates Jinfen White piglets; MS, indicates Mashen sows; MP, indicates Mashen piglets; 5 b indicates the samples collected at 5 d before sow parturition; 3 b indicates the samples collected at 3 d before sow parturition; 1 a indicates the samples collected at 1 d after piglet birth or the day of sow parturition; 4 a indicates the samples collected at 4 d after piglet birth or sow parturition; 7 a indicates the samples collected at 7 d after piglet birth or sow parturition.
Figure 2
Figure 2
PCoA analysis results of microbial diversity of samples from Jinfen White pig and Mashen pig. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) results of the sow and piglet saliva, farrowing bed environment, sow and piglet feces, colostrum, and sow vaginal secretion. Principal coordinate 1 (PC1) represents microbiota abundance, principal coordinate 2 (PC2) represents microbial community evenness.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Collinearity network analysis of Jinfen White pig and Mashen pig. Collinear relationships among microbiota of sow and piglet feces, sow and piglet saliva, farrowing bed environment, colostrum, and sow vaginal secretion. The node in the network represents the species node, and the connection between the species node represents that the species is included in the sample. Species with abundance >50 are displayed by default.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The microbiota composition of Mashen pig and Jinfen White pig. (A) The microbiota composition of Mashen pig and Jinfen White pig at the phylum level. (B) The microbiota composition of Mashen pig and Jinfen White pig at genera level.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Hierarchical clustering heatmap of the piglets and maternal factors and postpartum environmental samples based on association with microbiota. (A) Heatmap analysis results of correlation of Jinfen White pig. (B) Heatmap analysis results of correlation of Mashen pig. Columns correspond to the piglets and maternal factors and postpartum environmental samples; rows correspond to the top 50 abundant microbiota based on Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Red and blue denote positive and negative associations, respectively.
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