Analyze Diet
Animals : an open access journal from MDPI2024; 14(22); 3222; doi: 10.3390/ani14223222

Preliminary Functional Analysis of the Gut Microbiome in Colic Horses.

Abstract: The gut microbiome plays a critical role in maintaining horse health, influencing digestion, immunity, and overall well-being. However, in certain conditions like colic, there is evidence of significant alterations in the microbial community. To analyze the composition of the fecal microbiome and the enriched predicted metabolic functions of horses with colic compared to a control group, 14 horses with colic and 14 control horses were recruited. From a stool sample, DNA extraction was carried out for subsequent 16S rRNA metagenomic analysis. The composition of the microbiome was analyzed from the sequences of each sample using the QIIME version 1.8.0 and DADA2 version 1.22 programs. PICRUSt2 was used to predict metabolic functions. Statistical analyses were performed with the Mann-Whitney U test from the Python scipy v1 package. The gut microbiomes of both groups were dominated by , , and phyla. Colic in horses was associated with reduced diversity, reduced abundance of , and an increase in . The abundance of was negatively correlated with and The equine colic microbiome was predicted to be enriched in aerobic respiration pathways and fatty acid and amino acid degradation. These observations indicate discrete but important differences in the gut microbiome of colic horses.
Publication Date: 2024-11-10 PubMed ID: 39595275PubMed Central: PMC11590964DOI: 10.3390/ani14223222Google Scholar: Lookup
The Equine Research Bank provides access to a large database of publicly available scientific literature. Inclusion in the Research Bank does not imply endorsement of study methods or findings by Mad Barn.
  • Journal Article

Summary

This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.

The study explores the differences in the gut microbiome between horses suffering from colic as compared to healthy ones, identifying reduced diversity in the gut microbiome and changes in abundance of certain bacterial groups in colic horses.

Objectives and Methodology

This research study had a main objective to investigate and understand the composition and functioning of the gut microbiome in colic horses. It aimed to further understand the condition of colic in horses, using gut microbiome as an essential indicator. A total of 28 horses were included in this study, 14 of which were suffering from colic and the rest were taken as control group.

  • A stool sample was taken from each horse for DNA extraction and subsequent 16S rRNA metagenomic analysis.
  • Next, the extracted DNA was analyzed using QIIME version 1.8.0 and DADA2 version 1.22 programs to determine the composition of the microbiome.
  • Metabolic functions were predicted using PICRUSt2, a bioinformatics software application designed to predict the metabolic functional characteristics.
  • Statistical analyses were performed using the Mann-Whitney U test from the Python scipy v1 package. This statistical test is commonly employed for comparing differences between two independent groups.

Findings

The key findings of the study were as follows:

  • The gut microbiome of both groups of horses was mainly made up of three types of bacterial phyla, indicating core commonalities in the microbiome structure among horses.
  • The colic horses showed decreased microbiome diversity compared to the control group, implying a potential role of microbial imbalance in the disease.
  • The microbial composition also differed between the colic and control horses in terms of the abundance of various bacteria.
  • The research also found a negative correlation between the abundance of a certain bacteria and two others in the gut of colic horses. This correlation hints at a possible interaction between these bacteria, which could influence the horse’s susceptibility to colic.
  • The gut microbiome of colic horses was noted to show potential enrichment in certain metabolic processes such as aerobic respiration pathways and fatty acid and amino acid degradation. This observation could potentially suggest the microbiome’s adaptation to inflammation or other stress conditions.

Conclusion

The study concludes that important differences exist in the gut microbiome between healthy horses and those suffering from colic. While the findings are preliminary and require further validation, they suggest possible linkage between gut microbiome imbalances and horse colic. This research makes significant contribution to understanding the role of gut microbes in equine health and its potential implications for diagnosis, treatment and prevention strategies for colic in horses.

Cite This Article

APA
Thomson P, Garrido D, Santibáñez R, Lara F. (2024). Preliminary Functional Analysis of the Gut Microbiome in Colic Horses. Animals (Basel), 14(22), 3222. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14223222

Publication

ISSN: 2076-2615
NlmUniqueID: 101635614
Country: Switzerland
Language: English
Volume: 14
Issue: 22
PII: 3222

Researcher Affiliations

Thomson, Pamela
  • Laboratorio de Microbiología Clínica y Microbioma, Escuela de Medicina Veterinaria, Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Andrés Bello, Santiago 7550196, Chile.
Garrido, Daniel
  • Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Bioprocesos, Facultad de Ingeniería, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 8331150, Chile.
Santibáñez, Rodrigo
  • Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Bioprocesos, Facultad de Ingeniería, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 8331150, Chile.
Lara, Felipe
  • Unidad de Medicina y Cirugía Equina, Hospital Clínico Veterinario, Escuela de Medicina Veterinaria, Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Andrés Bello, Santiago 7550196, Chile.

Grant Funding

  • 11231174 / ANID. FONDECYT Iniciaciu00f3n

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

This article includes 58 references
  1. Jorgenson JK, Bennett JA, Burk SV. A Comparative Study of Equine Gut Microbiomes Using 16S and 18S rRNA Sequencing. FASEB J 2019;33:484.8.
  2. Al Jassim RAM, Andrews FM. The Bacterial Community of the Horse Gastrointestinal Tract and Its Relation to Fermentative Acidosis, Laminitis, Colic, and Stomach Ulcers. Vet. Clin. N. Am. Equine Pract. 2009;25:199–215.
    doi: 10.1016/j.cveq.2009.04.005pubmed: 19580934google scholar: lookup
  3. Julliand V, de Vaux A, Millet L, Fonty G. Identification of Ruminococcus flavefaciens as the Predominant Cellulolytic Bacterial Species of the Equine Cecum. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 1999;65:3738–3741.
  4. Cerqueira FM, Photenhauer AL, Pollet RM, Brown HA, Koropatkin NM. Starch Digestion by Gut Bacteria: Crowdsourcing for Carbs. Trends Microbiol. 2020;28:95–108.
    doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2019.09.004pubmed: 31624005google scholar: lookup
  5. Makki K, Deehan EC, Walter J, Bäckhed F. The Impact of Dietary Fiber on Gut Microbiota in Host Health and Disease. Cell Host Microbe 2018;23:705–715.
    doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2018.05.012pubmed: 29902436google scholar: lookup
  6. Honda K, Littman DR. The microbiota in adaptive immune homeostasis and disease. Nature 2016;535:75–84.
    doi: 10.1038/nature18848pubmed: 27383982google scholar: lookup
  7. Żak-Bochenek A, Bajzert J, Sambor D, Siwińska N, Szponar B, Łaczmański Ł, Żebrowska P, Czajkowska A, Karczewski M, Chełmońska-Soyta A. Homeostasis of the Intestinal Mucosa in Healthy Horses-Correlation between the Fecal Microbiome, Secretory Immunoglobulin A and Fecal Egg Count. Animals 2022;12:3094.
    doi: 10.3390/ani12223094pmc: PMC9687066pubmed: 36428322google scholar: lookup
  8. Theelen MJP, Luiken REC, Wagenaar JA, Sloet van Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan MM, Rossen JWA, Zomer AL. The Equine Faecal Microbiota of Healthy Horses and Ponies in The Netherlands: Impact of Host and Environmental Factors. Animals 2021;11:1762.
    doi: 10.3390/ani11061762pmc: PMC8231505pubmed: 34204691google scholar: lookup
  9. Daly K, Proudman CJ, Duncan SH, Flint HJ, Dyer J, Shirazi-Beechey SP. Alterations in microbiota and fermentation products in equine large intestine in response to dietary variation and intestinal disease. Br. J. Nutr. 2012;107:989–995.
    doi: 10.1017/S0007114511003825pubmed: 21816118google scholar: lookup
  10. Ganda E, Chakrabarti A, Sardi MI, Tench M, Kozlowicz BK, Norton SA, Warren LK, Khafipour E. Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product improves robustness of equine gut microbiome upon stress. Front. Vet. Sci. 2023;10:1134092.
    doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1134092pmc: PMC9998945pubmed: 36908513google scholar: lookup
  11. Murray J-AMD, Brown S, O’Shaughnessy P, Monteiro A, Warren H, Hastie PM. Effect of Live Yeast Culture Supplementation on Fibrolytic and Saccharolytic Bacterial Populations in the Feces of Horses Fed a High-Fiber or High-Starch Diet. J. Equine Vet. Sci. 2017;51:41–45.
  12. Edwards JE, Shetty SA, van den Berg P, Burden F, van Doorn DA, Pellikaan WF, Dijkstra J, Smidt H. Multi-kingdom characterization of the core equine fecal microbiota based on multiple equine (sub)species. Anim. Microbiome 2020;2:6.
    doi: 10.1186/s42523-020-0023-1pmc: PMC7807809pubmed: 33499982google scholar: lookup
  13. Shepherd ML, Swecker WS Jr, Jensen RV, Ponder MA. Characterization of the fecal bacteria communities of forage-fed horses by pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA V4 gene amplicons. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 2012;326:62–68.
  14. Dougal K, Harris PA, Girdwood SE, Creevey CJ, Curtis GC, Barfoot CF, Argo CM, Newbold CJ. Changes in the Total Fecal Bacterial Population in Individual Horses Maintained on a Restricted Diet Over 6 Weeks. Front. Microbiol. 2017;8:1502.
    doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.01502pmc: PMC5554519pubmed: 28848517google scholar: lookup
  15. Costa MC, Arroyo LG, Allen-Vercoe E, Stämpfli HR, Kim PT, Sturgeon A, Weese JS. Comparison of the Fecal Microbiota of Healthy Horses and Horses with Colitis by High Throughput Sequencing of the V3-V5 Region of the 16S rRNA Gene. PLoS ONE 2012;7:e41484.
  16. Massacci FR, Clark A, Ruet A, Lansade L, Costa M, Mach N. Inter-breed diversity and temporal dynamics of the faecal microbiota in healthy horses. J. Anim. Breed. Genet. 2020;137:103–120.
    doi: 10.1111/jbg.12441pubmed: 31523867google scholar: lookup
  17. Lee J, Kang Y-J, Kim Y-K, Choi J-Y, Shin S-M, Shin M-C. Exploring the Influence of Growth-Associated Host Genetics on the Initial Gut Microbiota in Horses. Genes 2023;14:1354.
    doi: 10.3390/genes14071354pmc: PMC10379381pubmed: 37510259google scholar: lookup
  18. Plancade S, Clark A, Philippe C, Helbling J-C, Moisan M-P, Esquerré D, Le Moyec L, Robert C, Barrey E, Mach N. Unraveling the effects of the gut microbiota composition and function on horse endurance physiology. Sci. Rep. 2019;9:9620.
    doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-46118-7pmc: PMC6610142pubmed: 31270376google scholar: lookup
  19. Li C, Li X, Guo R, Ni W, Liu K, Liu Z, Dai J, Xu Y, Abduriyim S, Wu Z. Expanded catalogue of metagenome-assembled genomes reveals resistome characteristics and athletic performance-associated microbes in horse. Microbiome 2023;11:7.
    doi: 10.1186/s40168-022-01448-zpmc: PMC9835274pubmed: 36631912google scholar: lookup
  20. Blackmore TM, Dugdale A, Argo CM, Curtis G, Pinloche E, Harris PA, Worgan HJ, Girdwood SE, Dougal K, Newbold CJ. Strong Stability and Host Specific Bacterial Community in Faeces of Ponies. PLoS ONE 2013;8:e75079.
  21. Venable EB, Bland SD, McPherson JL, Francis J. Role of the gut microbiota in equine health and disease. Anim. Front. 2016;6:43–49.
    doi: 10.2527/af.2016-0033google scholar: lookup
  22. Salem SE, Maddox TW, Berg A, Antczak P, Ketley JM, Williams NJ, Archer DC. Variation in faecal microbiota in a group of horses managed at pasture over a 12-month period. Sci. Rep. 2018;8:8510.
    doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-26930-3pmc: PMC5981443pubmed: 29855517google scholar: lookup
  23. Weese JS, Holcombe SJ, Embertson RM, Kurtz KA, Roessner HA, Jalali M, Wismer SE. Changes in the faecal microbiota of mares precede the development of post partum colic. Equine Vet. J. 2015;47:641–649.
    doi: 10.1111/evj.12361pubmed: 25257320google scholar: lookup
  24. Elzinga SE, Weese JS, Adams AA. Comparison of the Fecal Microbiota in Horses with Equine Metabolic Syndrome and Metabolically Normal Controls Fed a Similar All-Forage Diet. J. Equine Vet. Sci. 2016;44:9–16.
  25. Lara F, Castro R, Thomson P. Changes in the gut microbiome and colic in horses: Are they causes or consequences?. Open Vet. J. 2022;12:242–249.
    doi: 10.5455/OVJ.2022.v12.i2.12pmc: PMC9109837pubmed: 35603065google scholar: lookup
  26. Durham AE. The Role of Nutrition in Colic. Vet. Clin. N. Am. Equine Pract. 2009;25:67–78.
    doi: 10.1016/j.cveq.2008.11.003pubmed: 19303551google scholar: lookup
  27. Costa MC, Weese JS. Understanding the Intestinal Microbiome in Health and Disease. Vet. Clin. N. Am. Equine Pract. 2018;34:1–12.
    doi: 10.1016/j.cveq.2017.11.005pubmed: 29402480google scholar: lookup
  28. Erwin SJ, Blikslager AT, Ziegler AL. Age-Dependent Intestinal Repair: Implications for Foals with Severe Colic. Animals 2021;11:3337.
    doi: 10.3390/ani11123337pmc: PMC8697879pubmed: 34944114google scholar: lookup
  29. Stewart HL, Southwood LL, Indugu N, Vecchiarelli B, Engiles JB, Pitta D. Differences in the equine faecal microbiota between horses presenting to a tertiary referral hospital for colic compared with an elective surgical procedure. Equine Vet. J. 2019;51:336–342.
    doi: 10.1111/evj.13010pubmed: 30153353google scholar: lookup
  30. Faubladier C, Chaucheyras-Durand F, da Veiga L, Julliand V. Effect of transportation on fecal bacterial communities and fermentative activities in horses: Impact of Saccharomyces cerevisiae CNCM I-1077 supplementation. J. Anim. Sci. 2013;91:1736–1744.
    doi: 10.2527/jas.2012-5720pubmed: 23408806google scholar: lookup
  31. Dougal K, de la Fuente G, Harris PA, Girdwood SE, Pinloche E, Geor RJ, Nielsen BD, Schott HC II, Elzinga S, Newbold CJ. Characterisation of the Faecal Bacterial Community in Adult and Elderly Horses Fed a High Fibre, High Oil or High Starch Diet Using 454 Pyrosequencing. PLoS ONE 2014;9:e87424.
  32. Proudman CJ, Hunter JO, Darby AC, Escalona EE, Batty C, Turner C. Characterisation of the faecal metabolome and microbiome of Thoroughbred racehorses. Equine Vet. J. 2015;47:580–586.
    doi: 10.1111/evj.12324pubmed: 25041526google scholar: lookup
  33. Schoster A, Mosing M, Jalali M, Staempfli HR, Weese JS. Effects of transport, fasting and anaesthesia on the faecal microbiota of healthy adult horses. Equine Vet. J. 2016;48:595–602.
    doi: 10.1111/evj.12479pubmed: 26122549google scholar: lookup
  34. Park T, Cheong H, Yoon J, Kim A, Yun Y, Unno T. Comparison of the Fecal Microbiota of Horses with Intestinal Disease and Their Healthy Counterparts. Vet. Sci. 2021;8:113.
    doi: 10.3390/vetsci8060113pmc: PMC8234941pubmed: 34204317google scholar: lookup
  35. Salem SE, Maddox TW, Antczak P, Ketley JM, Williams NJ, Archer DC. Acute changes in the colonic microbiota are associated with large intestinal forms of surgical colic. BMC Vet. Res. 2019;15:468.
    doi: 10.1186/s12917-019-2205-1pmc: PMC6925886pubmed: 31864369google scholar: lookup
  36. Caporaso JG, Kuczynski J, Stombaugh J, Bittinger K, Bushman FD, Costello EK, Fierer N, Peña AG, Goodrich JK, Gordon JI. QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data. Nat. Methods 2010;7:335–336.
    doi: 10.1038/nmeth.f.303pmc: PMC3156573pubmed: 20383131google scholar: lookup
  37. Callahan BJ, McMurdie PJ, Rosen MJ, Han AW, Johnson AJA, Holmes SP. DADA2: High-resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon data. Nat. Methods 2016;13:581–583.
    doi: 10.1038/nmeth.3869pmc: PMC4927377pubmed: 27214047google scholar: lookup
  38. Douglas GM, Maffei VJ, Zaneveld JR, Yurgel SN, Brown JR, Taylor CM, Huttenhower C, Langille MGI. PICRUSt2 for prediction of metagenome functions. Nat. Biotechnol. 2020;38:685–688.
    doi: 10.1038/s41587-020-0548-6pmc: PMC7365738pubmed: 32483366google scholar: lookup
  39. Virtanen P, Gommers R, Oliphant TE, Haberland M, Reddy T, Cournapeau D, Burovski E, Peterson P, Weckesser W, Bright J. SciPy 1.0: Fundamental algorithms for scientific computing in Python. Nat. Methods 2020;17:261–272.
    doi: 10.1038/s41592-019-0686-2pmc: PMC7056644pubmed: 32015543google scholar: lookup
  40. Segata N, Izard J, Waldron L, Gevers D, Miropolsky L, Garrett WS, Huttenhower C. Metagenomic biomarker discovery and explanation. Genome Biol. 2011;12:R60.
    doi: 10.1186/gb-2011-12-6-r60pmc: PMC3218848pubmed: 21702898google scholar: lookup
  41. Wang Q, Garrity GM, Tiedje JM, Cole JR. Naïve Bayesian classifier for rapid assignment of rRNA sequences into the new bacterial taxonomy. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2007;73:5261–5267.
    doi: 10.1128/AEM.00062-07pmc: PMC1950982pubmed: 17586664google scholar: lookup
  42. Quast C, Pruesse E, Yilmaz P, Gerken J, Schweer T, Yarza P, Peplies J, Glöckner FO. The SILVA ribosomal RNA gene database project: Improved data processing and web-based tools. Nucleic Acids Res. 2013;41:D590–D596.
    doi: 10.1093/nar/gks1219pmc: PMC3531112pubmed: 23193283google scholar: lookup
  43. Yilmaz P, Parfrey LW, Yarza P, Gerken J, Pruesse E, Quast C, Schweer T, Peplies J, Ludwig W, Glöckner FO. The SILVA and “all-species Living Tree Project (LTP)” taxonomic frameworks. Nucleic Acids Res. 2014;42:D643–D648.
    doi: 10.1093/nar/gkt1209pmc: PMC3965112pubmed: 24293649google scholar: lookup
  44. Pedregosa F, Varoquaux G, Gramfort A, Michel V, Thirion B, Grisel O, Blondel M, Prettenhofer P, Weiss R, Dubourg V. Scikit-Learn: Machine Learning in Python. J. Mach. Learn. Res. 2011;12:2825–2830.
  45. Pitta D, Indugu N, Hennessy M, Vecchiarelli B, Stewart H, Willette J, Dobbie T, Engiles J, Southwood L. 358 Understanding the role of the fecal bacterial microbiota in equine colic. J. Anim. Sci. 2020;98:94.
    doi: 10.1093/jas/skaa278.171google scholar: lookup
  46. Barton MH, Hallowell GD. Current Topics in Medical Colic. Vet. Clin. N. Am. Equine Pract. 2023;39:229–248.
    doi: 10.1016/j.cveq.2023.03.008pubmed: 37169621google scholar: lookup
  47. Garber A, Hastie P, Murray J-A. Factors Influencing Equine Gut Microbiota: Current Knowledge. J. Equine Vet. Sci. 2020;88:102943.
    doi: 10.1016/j.jevs.2020.102943pubmed: 32303307google scholar: lookup
  48. Boucher L, Leduc L, Leclère M, Costa MC. Current Understanding of Equine Gut Dysbiosis and Microbiota Manipulation Techniques: Comparison with Current Knowledge in Other Species. Animals 2024;14:758.
    doi: 10.3390/ani14050758pmc: PMC10931082pubmed: 38473143google scholar: lookup
  49. Alicia F, Emmanuel J, Véronique J. Whole-Genome Sequencing and Annotation of Fibrobacter succinogenes HC4, Isolated from the Horse Cecum. Microbiol. Resour. Announc. 2022;11:e00440-22.
    doi: 10.1128/mra.00440-22pmc: PMC9670992pubmed: 36227092google scholar: lookup
  50. Koike S, Shingu Y, Inaba H, Kawai M, Kobayashi Y, Hata H, Tanaka K, Okubo M. Fecal Bacteria in Hokkaido Native Horses as Characterized by Microscopic Enumeration and Competitive Polymerase Chain Reaction Assays. J. Equine Sci. 2000;11:45–50.
    doi: 10.1294/jes.11.45google scholar: lookup
  51. Milinovich GJ, Klieve AV, Pollitt CC, Trott DJ. Microbial Events in the Hindgut During Carbohydrate-induced Equine Laminitis. Vet. Clin. N. Am. Equine Pract. 2010;26:79–94.
    doi: 10.1016/j.cveq.2010.01.007pubmed: 20381737google scholar: lookup
  52. Jokisalo J, Bryan J, Legget B, Abbott Y, Katz LM. Multiple-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii bronchopneumonia in a colt following intensive care treatment. Equine Vet. Educ. 2010;22:281–286.
  53. van der Kolk JH, Endimiani A, Graubner C, Gerber V, Perreten V. Acinetobacter in veterinary medicine, with an emphasis on Acinetobacter baumannii. J. Glob. Antimicrob. Resist. 2019;16:59–71.
    doi: 10.1016/j.jgar.2018.08.011pubmed: 30144636google scholar: lookup
  54. Walther B, Klein K-S, Barton A-K, Semmler T, Huber C, Wolf SA, Tedin K, Merle R, Mitrach F, Guenther S. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter baumannii among horses entering a veterinary teaching hospital: The contemporary “Trojan Horse”. PLoS ONE 2018;13:e0191873.
  55. Dicks LMT, Botha M, Dicks E, Botes M. The equine gastro-intestinal tract: An overview of the microbiota, disease and treatment. Livest. Sci. 2014;160:69–81.
  56. Sharkey LC, DeWitt S, Stockman C. Neurologic signs and hyperammonemia in a horse with colic. Vet. Clin. Pathol. 2006;35:254–258.
  57. Gilbert MS, Ijssennagger N, Kies AK, van Mil SWC. Protein fermentation in the gut; implications for intestinal dysfunction in humans, pigs, and poultry. Am. J. Physiol. Liver Physiol. 2018;315:G159–G170.
    doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.00319.2017pubmed: 29597354google scholar: lookup
  58. Diether NE, Willing BP. Microbial fermentation of dietary protein: An important factor in diet–microbe–host interaction. Microorganisms 2019;7:19.

Citations

This article has been cited 0 times.