Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2024, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (10): 4720-4734.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2024.10.042

• Clinical Veterinary Medicine • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Therapeutic Effect of the Fecal Microbiota Transplantation on Calf Non-specific Pathogenic Diarrhea and Bacterial Diarrhea in Association with Their Gut Microbiota Changes

Zuobin YANG1(), Jincheng SHI1, Ziwei MA1, Rulong CHEN2, Zhan SHU3, Xin LI1,3, Jinquan WANG1, Qi ZHONG4, Xuelian MA1,*(), Gang YAO1,*()   

  1. 1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi 830052, China
    2. Xinjiang Hanting Muyuan Breeding Technology Company Limited, Bole 833407, China
    3. Animal Disease Control and Prevention Center in Altay Prefecture, Altay 836500, China
    4. Xinjiang Academy of Animal Science, Urumqi 830026, China
  • Received:2023-11-01 Online:2024-10-23 Published:2024-11-04
  • Contact: Xuelian MA, Gang YAO E-mail:411096297@qq.com;1016685239@qq.com;yg@xjau.edu.cn

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to compare the therapeutic efficacy and the changes of gut microbiota by faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) treatment between non-specific pathogenic diarrhea and the bacterial diarrhea in calves. In the study, 8 healthy newborn calves were selected as the health (Health, H) group, 24 newborn calves with clinical symptoms of diarrhea were selected, in which 16 diarrheic calves without diarrheic related pathogens were assigned to the non-specific pathogenic diarrhea (Diarrhea, D) group, and the other 8 diarrheic calves with STEC infection were assigned to the STEC diarrhea (STEC-Diarrhea, SD) group after diarrhea-associated pathogens detection. The average age of all calves was 14.8±6.1 days. After FMT group D was named FMT-D and group SD was named FMT-SD. Donor calves were screened by clinical symptoms of diarrhea with pathogenic test, and then the fecal microbiota solution was prepared for oral treatment (250 mL each calf, contains 40 g feces of single donor). Bristol Stool Scale (BSS) was used to assess the effectiveness of FMT. The healing day and the daily gain (DG) were recorded, and calves' blood physiological parameters and inflammatory cytokines were determined. Rectal feces were collected for 16S rRNA gene sequencing to analyze the changes of gut microbiota. The results showed that after FMT, BSS of calves in group D and SD was extremely decreased (P < 0.0001) from type 6-7 to type 4-5, and after decline was not significantly different from that in group H (P>0.05). There was no significant difference in the healing day between group FMT-D and group FMT-SD (P>0.05). At day 150 after FMT, DG of FMT-D group was not significantly different from that of group H (P>0.05), whereas DG of group FMT-SD was still significantly lower than that of group H (P < 0.05). IL-1β and IL-6 as well as IL-10 were extremely higher in group D and group SD than those in group H (P < 0.01), and after FMT they were decreased to the level of H group (P>0.05); Secretory immunoglobulin A was extremely lower in group D and group SD than that in group H (P < 0.001), and IL-22 was significantly lower in group D than that in group H (P < 0.05), which were both increased to the level of group H after FMT (P>0.05). The richness and diversity of gut microbiota in group D and group SD were significantly lower than that in group H (P < 0.01), while increased after FMT. There were extremely significantly different gut microbiota structure of group D and group SD from that of group H (P < 0.001). The relative abundance (RA) of Fusobacteriota was extremely higher in both group D and group SD than that in group H (P < 0.001), the RA of genera Escherichia_Shigella, Tyzzerella, Faecalibacterium, Fusobacterium, [Ruminococcus]_gnavus_group, Butyricicoccus, Collinsella and Prevotella was significantly higher in group D and group SD than those in group H (P < 0.05), After FMT they were decreased to the level of group H. Moreover, The RA of genera Muribaculaceae, Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group, [Eubacterium]_coprostanoligenes_group, Intestinimonas, Clostridia_UCG_014, Subdoligranulum and Breznakia was extremely reduced in group D and group SD in comparison with group H (P < 0.01), then increased in both group FMT-D and group FMT-SD after FMT, which was reached to the level of H group (P>0.05). FMT treatment has a significant therapeutic effect on both aforementioned kinds of diarrhea in calves via reducing the relative abundance of some pathogenic genera, while increasing that of some potentially probiotic ones in the gut microbiota of diarrheic calves, thus resulting in the composition and structure of the gut microbiota tended to be healthier, and host immune function is enhanced, FMT treatment may have long-term beneficial impact on calves' gain and grows. However, the gut microbiota restoration by FMT treatment between these two kinds of diarrhea calves still remains some difference.

Key words: calves, diarrhea, fecal microbiota transplantation, effect evaluation, gut microbiota

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