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. 2023 Jul 16;13(14):2323.
doi: 10.3390/ani13142323.

Comparison of the Faecal Microbiota Composition Following a Dairy By-Product Supplemented Diet in Nero Siciliano and Large White × Landrace Pig Breeds

Viviana Floridia  1 , Letterio Giuffrè  2 , Domenico Giosa  2 , Francesca Arfuso  1 , Francesca Aragona  1 , Francesco Fazio  1 , Cai Chen  3 , Chengy Song  3 , Orazio Romeo  2 , Enrico D'Alessandro  1
Affiliations

Comparison of the Faecal Microbiota Composition Following a Dairy By-Product Supplemented Diet in Nero Siciliano and Large White × Landrace Pig Breeds

Viviana Floridia et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

The current study compared the faecal microbiota composition of two pig breeds (autochthonous vs. commercial) to understand what happens after the integration of liquid whey in the diet and what the role of the host genetic is. The trial was conducted for 60 days, and the faecal microbiota composition was investigated at three time points, T0, T1 (after 30 days) and T2 (after 60 days) in 30 female pigs (20 commercial crossbred and 10 Nero Siciliano pigs). The animals were divided into four groups (two control and two treatment groups). Generally, in both breeds, Firmicutes (51%) and Bacteroidota (36%) were the most abundant phylum whereas Prevotella, Treponema and Lactobacillus were the most abundant genera. The two breeds have a different reaction to a liquid whey diet. In fact, as shown by PERMANOVA analysis, the liquid whey significantly (p < 0.001) affects the microbiota composition of crossbreeds while not having an effect on the microbiota of the Nero Siciliano. Despite this, in both breeds Bifidobacterium and Ruminococcus have been positively influenced by liquid whey and they promote intestinal health, improve immunity, increase performance, and feed efficiency. In conclusion, the integration of liquid whey had a different effect on the Nero Siciliano and crossbred pig breeds, emphasizing the importance of the host genetic profile in determining the faecal bacterial composition.

Keywords: Nero Siciliano; dairy by-product; faecal microbiota; metagenomics; pigs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Taxonomy bar plot illustrating the relative abundance at phylum level.
Figure 2
Figure 2
PCoA plot depicting the distribution of two diet groups (CTRL vs. TRT), belonging to CB breed, at three time points using the Bray–Curtis distance.
Figure 3
Figure 3
PcoA plot depicting the distribution of diet groups (CTRL vs. TRT), belonging to Nero Siciliano breed, at three time points using the Bray–Curtis distance.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Volcano plots showing significant differences found at genus level between TRT groups of two breeds (NS vs. CB) (A), in the liquid whey diet at T2 vs. T0 in CB (B) and NS (C). Red dots represent genera with an adjusted p-value below the threshold 0.05 and ±1.5 for FDR and FC, respectively.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

This work was supported by the University of Messina FFABR_A2021_D’Alessandro.

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