Potential relevance of pig gut content transplantation for production and research

It is becoming increasingly evident that the gastrointestinal microbiota has a significant impact on the overall health and production of the pig.This has led to intensified research on the composition of the gastrointestinal microbiota,factors affecting it,and the impact of the microbiota on health,growth performance,and more recently,behavior of the host.Swine production research has been heavily focused on assessing the effects of feed additives and dietary modifications to alter or take advantage of select characteristics of gastrointestinal microbes to improve health and feed conversion efficiency.Research on faecal microbiota transplantation(FMT) as a possible tool to improve outcomes in pigs through manipulation of the gastrointestinal microbiome is very recent and limited data is available.Results on FMT in humans demonstrating the transfer of phenotypic traits from donors to recipients and the high efficacy of FMT to treat Clostridium difficile infections in humans,together with data from pigs relating GI-tract microbiota composition with growth performance has likely played an important role in the interest towards this strategy in pig production.However,several factors can influence the impact of FMT on the recipient,and these need to be identified and optimized before this tool can be applied to pig production.There are obvious inherent biosecurity and regulatory issues in this strategy,since the donor's microbiome can never be completely screened for all possible non-desirable microorganisms.However,considering the success observed in humans,it seems worth investigating this strategy for certain applications in pig production.Further,FMT research may lead to the identification of specific bacterial group(s) essential for a particular outcome,resulting in the development of banks of clones which can be used as targeted therapeutics,rather than the broader approach applied in FMT.This review examines the factors associated with the use of FMT,and its potential application to swine production,and includes research on using the pig as model for human medical purposes.

Effect of mucin 4 allele on susceptibility to experimental infection with enterotoxigenic F4 Escherichia coli in pigs fed experimental diets

Background: This study investigated the validity of the DNA-marker based test to determine susceptibility to ETECF4 diarrhoea by comparing the results of two DNA sequencing techniques in weaner pigs following experimental infection with F4 enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli(ETEC-F4). The effects of diet and genetic susceptibility were assessed by measuring the incidence of piglet post-weaning diarrhoea(PWD), faecal E. coli shedding and the diarrhoea index.Results: A DNA marker-based test targeting the mucin 4 gene(MUC4) that encodes F4 fimbria receptor identified pigs as either fully susceptible(SS), partially or mildly susceptible(SR), and resistant(RR) to developing ETEC-F4 diarrhoea. To further analyse this, DNA sequencing was undertaken, and a significantly higher proportion of C nucleotides was observed for RR and SR at the Xba I cleavage site genotypes when compared to SS. However, no significant difference was found between SR and RR genotypes. Therefore, results obtained from Sanger sequencing retrospectively allocated pigs into a resistant genotype(MUC4–), in the case of a C nucleotide, and a susceptible genotype(MUC4+), in the case of a G nucleotide, at the single nucleotide polymorphism site. A total of 72 weaner pigs(age ~ 21 days), weighing 6.1 ± 1.2 kg(mean ± SEM), were fed 3 different diets:(i) positive control(PC) group supplemented with 3 g/kg zinc oxide(Zn O),(ii) negative control(NC) group(no Zn O or HAMSA),and(iii) a diet containing a 50 g/kg high-amylose maize starch product(HAMSA) esterified with acetate. At days five and six after weaning, all pigs were orally infected with ETEC(serotype O149:F4;toxins LT1, ST1, ST2 and EAST). The percentage of pigs that developed diarrhoea following infection was higher(P = 0.05) in MUC4+ pigs compared to MUC4– pigs(50% vs. 26.8%, respectively). Furthermore, pigs fed Zn O had less ETEC-F4 diarrhoea(P = 0.009) than pigs fed other diets, however faecal shedding of ETEC was similar(P > 0.05) between diets.Conclusion: These results confirm that MUC4+ pigs have a higher prevalence of ETEC-F4 diarrhoea following exposure, and that pigs fed Zn O, irrespective of MUC4 status, have reduced ETEC-F4 diarrhoea. Additionally,sequencing or quantifying the single nucleotide polymorphism distribution at the Xba I cleavage site may be more reliable in identifying genotypic susceptibility when compared to traditional methods.