FEMS Microbiology Letters, 363, 2016, fnw138

doi: 10.1093/femsle/fnw138
Advance Access Publication Date: 25 May 2016
Research Letter

R E S E A R C H L E T T E R – Environmental Microbiology

Effects of dietary fibre source on microbiota

composition in the large intestine of suckling piglets
Lingli Zhang1 , Chunlong Mu1 , Xiangyu He1 , Yong Su1 , Shengyong Mao1 ,
Jing Zhang2 , Hauke Smidt2 and Weiyun Zhu1,∗
1
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Gastrointestinal Nutrition and Animal Health, Laboratory of Gastrointestinal
Microbiology, College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095
Jiangsu, China and 2 Laboratory of Microbiology, Agrotechnology and Food Science Group, Wageningen
University, Stippeneng 4. 6708 WE, Wageningen, the Netherlands
∗
Corresponding author: Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Gastrointestinal Nutrition and Animal Health, Laboratory of Gastrointestinal Microbiology, College of
Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095 Jiangsu, China. Tel: +86 25 84395523; E-mail: zhuweiyun@njau.edu.cn
One sentence summary: This work found that dietary fibre-containing diet affected the microbial composition in the large intestine of suckling piglets,
and that alfalfa inclusion showed benefits on microbial communities.
Editor: Miguel Gueimonde

ABSTRACT
This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary fibre sources on the gut microbiota in suckling piglets, and to test the
hypothesis that a moderate increase of dietary fibre may affect the gut microbiota during the suckling period. Suckling
piglets were fed different fibre-containing diets or a control diet from postnatal day 7 to 22. Digesta samples from cecum,
proximal colon and distal colon were used for Pig Intestinal Tract Chip analysis. The data showed that the effects of
fibre-containing diet on the gut microbiota differed in the fibre source and gut location. The alfalfa diet increased
Clostridium cluster XIVb and Sporobacter termitidis in the cecum compared to the pure cellulose diet. Compared to the control
diet, the alfalfa diet also increased Coprococcus eutactus in the distal colon, while the pure cellulose diet decreased
Eubacterium pyruvativorans in the cecum. The pure cellulose diet increased Prevotella ruminicola compared to the wheat bran
diet. Interestingly, the alfalfa group had the lowest abundance of the potential pathogen Streptococcus suis in the cecum and
distal colon. These results indicated that a moderate increase in dietary fibres affected the microbial composition in
suckling piglets, and that the alfalfa inclusion produced some beneficial effects on the microbial communities.

Keywords: fibre; microbial communities; large intestine; suckling piglets

INTRODUCTION fect of dietary fibre on microbial composition in weaning piglets.

However, to our knowledge, there are few reports on the effects
Dietary fibre is the major substrate for intestinal bacteria in pigs.
of dietary fibre on microbial composition in suckling piglets. In
An increase in the levels of dietary fibre can increase the bac-
piglets, the microbial colonisation at the suckling period is im-
teria with cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic activities in growing
portant for the microbial development after weaning. Impor-
pigs (Metzler and Mosenthin 2008). Previous studies also indi-
tantly, the microbial communities of suckling piglets are found
cated that dietary fibre increases the abundance of potentially
to be affected by diet composition, such as the presence of poly-
beneficial bacteria in the large intestine of weaning piglets (Chen
dextrose (Herfel et al. 2011), or polydextrose and galactooligosac-
et al. 2013). Hence, these and similar studies demonstrated an ef-
charides (Hoeflinger et al. 2015). Therefore, in suckling piglets, it

Received: 17 March 2016; Accepted: 23 May 2016


C FEMS 2016. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

1
 2 FEMS Microbiology Letters, 2016, Vol. 363, No. 14
is essential to better understand the potential effect of dietary
fibres on the microbial communities.
Compared with weaning piglets, suckling piglets prefer diets
with low fibre content (Drochner 1993). This may be due to the
fact that the capacity for cellulose breakdown in very young pigs
is extremely low (Drochner 1993). An inadequate high content
of fibre may be adverse to the growth of suckling piglets. How-
ever, whether a moderate increase of dietary fibre may affect the
gut microbiota in suckling piglets remains unknown. During the
suckling period, creep feeding can help the adaptation from liq-
uid to solid feed. Additionally, creep feeding provides nutrients
that may be insufficiently supplied by the sow milk (de Greeff
et al. 2016). Since the gut microbiota is sensitive to the change
in dietary fibre, inclusion of an increased fibre content in creep
feeding may possibly change gut microbial communities.
The present experiment was performed to evaluate the ef-
fects of dietary fibre sources on the gut microbiota in the large
intestine of piglets during the suckling period. The hypothesis
that a moderate addition of dietary fibre during the suckling pe-
riod may affect the gut microbiota was also tested.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Animals and sampling
All management and experimental procedures were conducted
according to the Guidelines for the Care and Use of Animals of
Nanjing Agricultural University, 1999. The study was approved
by the Ethical Committee of Nanjing Agricultural University,
Nanjing, China.
The experiment was based on a randomised complete block
design. A total of 12 litters of healthy neonatal piglets (10–11
piglets in each litter) from a commercial maternal-line herd
(Landrace-Yorkshire-Duroc) were randomly divided into four
groups: control group (basal diet; 5.30% neutral detergent fibre
(NDF), 3.17% acid detergent fibre (ADF)), alfalfa group (basal diet
+ 1.3% alfalfa; 6.08% NDF, 3.62% ADF), wheat bran group (basal
diet + 2.92% wheat bran; 6.08% NDF, 3.26% ADF) and pure cellu-
lose (containing 94.24% NDF) group (basal diet + 1% pure cellu-
lose; 6.08% NDF, 3.78% ADF) (Table S1, Supporting Information).
Each group had three litters (replicates). The three replicates
were chosen to balance the cost of replicates and the number of
replicates necessary for statistical analysis. The supplemented
levels for each fibre source were designed to obtain matching
NDF levels for the four groups. Creep feeding was produced by
Agribrands Purina Nanjing Feedmill Co., Ltd (Nanjing, China).
Piglets had free access to creep feed from day 7 to day 22 while
suckling milk from their respective sows. The creep feed did
not contain any antibiotics or acidifiers. The creep feed intake
in each litter was recorded from day 7 to day 22. Piglets were
weighed per litter at day 7 and day 23. Average daily gain and
average daily feed intake were calculated per piglet. On day 23,
one piglet from each replicate was sacrificed. The digesta of the
cecum, proximal colon and distal colon were collected and ho-
mogenised. The homogenised digesta samples were stored at
–20◦ C until further analysis.
Microbial DNA isolation
For DNA extraction, each sample (0.1 g) was weighed into a ster-
ile tube containing 0.3 g of sterile zirconium beads (diameter,
0.1 mm), suspended in 1 ml of TN 150 buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl,150
mM NaCl (pH 8.0)), and shaken at 5000 rpm for 3 min using a
mini-bead beater (Biospec Products, Bartlesville, OK, USA). The
sample was centrifuged at 10 000 rpm for 5 min, and the su-
pernatant was extracted by phenol–chloroform extraction (Zoe-
tendal, Akkermans and de Vos 1998). DNA was precipitated from
the aqueous phase with ethanol, and pellets were resuspended
in 50 μL of TE (10 mM Tris, 1 mM EDTA (pH8.0)). A NanoDrop
ND-1000 spectrophotometer (NanoDrop R Technologies, Wilm-
ington, DE, USA) was used to determine DNA concentrations,
and electrophoresis in agarose gel 1.2% (w/v) containing ethid-
ium bromide was used to check the quality of DNA.
Pig Intestinal Tract Chip (PITChip) analysis
Three replicates of each location in each treatment were used
for the PITChip analysis. A total of 36 samples from the four
treatments and three gut locations were used for analysis.
The PITChip is a phylogenetic microarray with >2900 oligonu-
cleotides based on 16S rRNA gene sequences of 627 porcine
intestinal microbial species-level phylotypes (Pérez Gutiérrez
2010). The protocols for amplification, labelling, hybridisation
and analysis of the generated data were performed essentially
as previously described for the Human Intestinal Tract Chip
(Rajilic-Stojanovic et al. 2009). In brief, the bacterial 16S rRNA
genes were amplified using the primers T7prom-Bact-27-for and
Uni-1492-rev, the PCR products were transcribed into RNA and
the purified resultant RNA was coupled with CyDye (GE Health-
care Life Sciences) before fragmentation and hybridisation to the
array. Microarray images were processed using Agilent Feature
Extraction Software, version 9.1 (Agilent Technologies). Data
normalisation and processing were performed as described pre-
viously (Rajilic-Stojanovic et al. 2009).
Statistical analysis
Homogeneity of variance was tested for all measures. To com-
pare differences between groups, the data were analysed via a
one-way ANOVA with a Tukey post hoc test or a Kruskal–Wallis
one-way ANOVA when variances were unequal, using SPSS ver-
sion 20 statistical software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Significance
was considered at P < 0.05. A heatmap of most predominant
bacteria at the genus level was visualised using the Heatmap
Illustrator (Deng et al. 2014), considering a threshold of relative
abundance 0.5%.
RESULTS
Growth performance
In this study, there were no significant differences in average
daily gain (ANOVA, P = 0.259) between the control diet (mean ±
SEM: 221.59 ± 16.92), the pure cellulose diet (mean ± SEM: 203.89
± 27.75), the wheat bran diet (mean ± SEM: 243.15 ± 28.24) and
alfalfa diet (mean ± SEM: 211.08 ± 17.59). The average daily feed
intake was also similar (ANOVA, P = 0.883) between the control
diet (mean ± SEM: 17.29 ± 0.66), the pure cellulose diet (mean
± SEM: 17.16 ± 0.56), the wheat bran diet (mean ± SEM: 17.55 ±
0.92) and alfalfa diet (mean ± SEM: 17.62 ± 0.75).
Effects of dietary fibres on the microbial composition
in the large intestine
The microbial communities in the digesta of the cecum, prox-
imal colon and distal colon were profiled. At the phylum level,
Firmicutes was predominant across the cecum, proximal colon
and distal colon, and members of this phylum accounted for
about 57.82% to 74.37% of the total community (Table 1). Bac-
teroidetes (7.35%–24.41%) and Proteobacteria (10.05%–14.38%)
Table 1. Effects of different fibre sources on the relative abundance (%) of phylum-level taxonomic groups as determined with the PITChipa .

Cecum Proximal colon Distal colon

Con PC WB Alfalfa SEM P Con PC WB Alfalfa SEM P Con PC WB Alfalfa SEM P

Items
Actinobacteria 1.91 1.50 1.63 1.63 0.10 0.570 1.96 1.73 1.57 1.76 0.10 0.635 1.97 1.81 1.47 1.44 0.11 0.175
Bacteroidetes 10.75 24.61 7.35 9.65 3.07 0.137 13.16 20.14 12.19 16.71 2.68 0.745 12.29 15.18 17.52 17.28 1.91 0.782
Bacilli 13.29 11.40 9.89 11.22 0.65 0.320 13.05 13.19 9.50 10.62 1.09 0.577 13.37a 11.79ab 8.09ab 7.68b 0.94 0.027
Clostridium cluster I 0.63 0.47 1.44 1.09 0.21 0.315 0.61 0.44 0.69 0.72 0.09 0.701 0.71 0.85 0.57 0.88 0.14 0.874
Clostridium cluster IV 22.50 17.63 28.01 27.75 1.85 0.094 20.80 15.23 23.71 21.49 1.83 0.410 19.29 21.29 23.59 27.29 1.67 0.365
Clostridium cluster IX 7.79 4.83 4.00 2.33 1.23 0.469 7.97 4.97 5.17 4.20 1.12 0.682 8.51 2.77 5.23 2.20 1.39 0.355
Clostridium cluster XI 5.57 2.41 5.07 4.20 0.63 0.277 4.93 2.43 4.74 4.53 0.61 0.447 6.22 3.71 4.05 3.79 0.61 0.424
Clostridium cluster XIII 0.45 0.23 0.31 0.33 0.05 0.416 0.40 0.21 0.38 0.38 0.05 0.446 0.54 0.31 0.31 0.31 0.05 0.306
Clostridium cluster XIVa 17.12 19.71 22.64 22.79 1.49 0.498 15.29 18.35 19.85 18.66 1.26 0.650 16.34 20.57 17.77 19.69 1.27 0.671
Clostridium cluster XIVb 1.35ab 1.13b 1.63ab 1.80a 0.09 0.015 1.32 1.19 1.47 1.68 0.08 0.156 1.52 1.37 1.44 1.92 0.10 0.171
Clostridium cluster XV 0.78 0.61 0.59 0.80 0.07 0.584 0.87 0.56 0.66 0.66 0.06 0.363 0.89 0.67 0.60 0.74 0.06 0.433
Clostridium cluster XVI 0.38 0.31 0.36 0.34 0.03 0.895 0.46 0.50 0.43 0.42 0.06 0.968 0.41 0.44 0.40 0.34 0.04 0.823
Clostridium cluster XVII 0.33 0.24 0.36 0.33 0.03 0.567 0.43 0.60 0.39 0.34 0.07 0.645 0.36 0.54 0.34 0.26 0.06 0.423
Clostridium cluster XVIII 0.08 0.06 0.06 0.05 0.01 0.642 0.07 0.14 0.06 0.06 0.02 0.184 0.07 0.10 0.07 0.05 0.01 0.344
Total Firmicutes 70.28 59.04 74.37 73.04 3.04 0.242 66.19 57.82 67.06 63.77 2.99 0.724 68.23 64.42 62.47 65.16 1.77 0.744
Proteobacteria 11.23 10.05 10.59 10.82 0.22 0.248 11.08 14.38 12.26 11.89 0.66 0.329 11.39 12.58 12.04 11.25 0.40 0.647
Fusobacteria 0.74 0.74 1.53 0.42 0.29 0.602 1.98 0.96 2.58 0.74 0.48 0.516 0.69 1.04 1.87 0.51 0.27 0.286
Mollicutes 1.57 1.40 1.08 0.99 0.16 0.567 1.85 1.80 1.06 1.57 0.19 0.439 1.95 1.09 1.24 0.69 0.25 0.350
Spirochaetes 1.77 1.18 1.92 1.79 0.16 0.354 1.81 1.59 1.76 1.75 0.12 0.925 1.66 1.81 1.57 1.80 0.11 0.881
Verrucomicrobia 0.21 0.22 0.17 0.17 0.03 0.893 0.24 0.15 0.17 0.20 0.02 0.346 0.23 0.14 0.25 0.18 0.03 0.721

a
The data of relative abundance (%) are expressed as means (n = 3). Means within a group without a common letter differ, P < 0.05. Con, control; PC, pure cellulose; WB, wheat bran.
Zhang et al.
3
 4 FEMS Microbiology Letters, 2016, Vol. 363, No. 14
Figure 1. Heatmap of the dominant bacteria at the genus level in the large intestine of the piglets. The sample label indicates gut location linked with the diet treatment.
The C, P and D before the link indicate cecum, proximal colon and distal colon, respectively. The C, PC, W and A after the link indicate control, pure cellulose, wheat
bran and alfafa diets, respectively.
were also predominant in different groups across the large
intestine (Table 1). Within Firmicutes, Clostridium clusters IX
(17.63%–28.01%) and XIVa (15.29%–22.79%) and Bacilli (7.68%–
13.37%) were predominant. Other bacterial phyla, including
Actinobacteria (1.44%–1.97%), Fusobacteria (0.42%–2.58%), Molli-
cutes (0.69%–1.85%), Spirochaetes (1.18%–1.92%) and Verrucomi-
crobia (0.14%–0.25%), were also found in the piglets. Compared
with the control diet, dietary supplementation with pure cellu-
lose, wheat bran and alfalfa did not affect the relative abundance
of any of the dominant phyla in the digesta of cecum and proxi-
mal colon. In the digesta of the cecum, the alfalfa supplementa-
tion increased the relative abundance of Clostridium cluster XIVb
compared with the pure cellulose supplementation (P < 0.05, Ta-
ble 1). In the digesta of the distal colon, the alfalfa diet decreased
the relative abundance of Bacilli compared with the control diet
(P < 0.05, Table 1). On the contrary, dietary supplementation with
pure cellulose and wheat bran had no significant effect on the
relative abundance of the dominated phyla in the digesta of the
distal colon.
At higher taxonomic resolution, Sporobacter termitidis,
uncultured Prevotella, uncultured Clostridia IV, Lachnospira
pectinoschiza, Ruminococcus obeum and Clostridium cellulosi were
the most predominant genus-level groups (Fig. 1, Table S2,
Supporting Information). In the cecal digesta, the alfalfa diet
increased the relative abundance of uncultured Bacteroidetes
compared with the control diet, the pure cellulose diet and the
wheat bran diet (P < 0.05, Table 2). Compared with the wheat
bran diet, the alfalfa diet significantly increased the relative
abundance of uncultured Clostridia XIVb and S. termitidis (P <
0.05, Table 2). The pure cellulose diet decreased the relative
abundance of Eubacterium pyruvativorans compared with the
control diet (P < 0.05, Table 2). The pure cellulose diet increased
the relative abundance of Prevotella ruminicola compared with
the wheat bran diet (P < 0.05, Table 2). The wheat bran diet
increased the relative abundance of Dorea compared with the
control diet (P < 0.05, Table 2). In the digesta of the proximal
colon, the pure cellulose diet decreased the relative abundance
of Acholeplasma and Gemella haemolysans compared with the
control diet (P < 0.05, Table 2), while no significant effects
were observed for the wheat bran diet and alfalfa diet. In the
digesta of the distal colon, the alfalfa diet increased the relative
abundance of Coprococcus eutactus compared with the control
diet (P < 0.05, Table 2). The wheat bran diet decreased the
relative abundance of Lactobacillus paracasei compared with the
control diet (P < 0.05, Table 2).
At the species level, we noted the alteration of the relative
abundance of Streptococcus suis after dietary fibres. In the cecal
digesta, the alfalfa diet had the lowest relative abundance of S.
suis among all the groups and decreased (P < 0.05) S. suis com-
pared with the wheat bran diet (Fig. 2). There were no signifi-
cant effects of dietary fibres on the relative abundance of S. suis
in the digesta of the proximal colon. In the digesta of the dis-
tal colon, the alfalfa diet had the lowest relative abundance of S.
suis among all the groups. Compared with the control diet, both
the wheat bran diet and alfalfa diet decreased the relative abun-
dance of S. suis significantly (Fig. 2).
DISCUSSION
Our data demonstrated that a moderate increase of dietary fi-
bre affected the composition of the gut microbiota in suckling
piglets. Furthermore, the effect differed per fibre source and gut
 Zhang et al. 5

Table 2. The relative abundance (%) of bacterial genus-level groups that explained part of the variability between the microbial communities
in piglets fed with a control diet (Con) and diets containing pure cellulose (PC), wheat bran (WB) or alfalfaa .

Items Con PC WB Alfalfa SEM P

Cecum
Uncultured Bacteroidetes 0.08a 0.14a 0.40a 0.83b 0.10 <0.001
Uncultured Clostridia XIVb 1.35ab 1.13b 1.63ab 1.80a 0.09 0.015
Dorea et rel. 0.35a 0.42ab 0.74b 0.43ab 0.06 0.025
Sporobacter termitidis et rel. 7.93ab 5.84b 8.69ab 10.08a 0.60 0.032
Butyrivibrio crossotus et rel. 1.09 0.94 1.47 1.40 0.09 0.044
Eubacterium pyruvativorans et rel. 0.12a 0.04b 0.07ab 0.06ab 0.01 0.055
Prevotella ruminicola et rel. 0.05ab 0.44a 0.01b 0.04ab 0.07 0.053
Proximal colon
Acholeplasma 0.08a 0.03b 0.05ab 0.07ab 0.01 0.048
Gemella haemolysans et rel. 0.03a 0.02b 0.03ab 0.03ab 0.00 0.063
Distal colon
Coprococcus eutactus et rel. 0.34a 0.43ab 0.42ab 0.45b 0.02 0.033
Lactobacillus paracasei et rel. 0.15a 0.10ab 0.05b 0.07ab 0.02 0.035

a
The data of relative abundance (%) are expressed as means (n = 3). Means within a group without a common letter differ, P < 0.05. Con, control; PC, pure cellulose;
WB, wheat bran.

the alfalfa diet. Coprococcus eutactus belongs to a group within the

Figure 2. Effects of different fibre sources on the relative abundance (%) of S. suis
as determined with the PITChip. Means within a group without a common letter
differ, P < 0.05.
location. Currently, most studies focus on weaning pigs. This
study is the first to use comprehensive microarray-based profil-
ing to detect effects of different dietary fibres on microbial com-
munities in the large intestine of suckling piglets.
We found that different fibre sources had varying impact on
the microbial composition. This difference may be related to the
different chemical composition. Wheat bran is rich in insoluble
fibre such as cellulose that is characterised by low fermentability
in the large intestine of pigs (Metzler and Mosenthin 2008). Sim-
ilarly, also alfalfa is rich in insoluble fibre (cellulose), but in con-
trast also has soluble fibre (fructans and pectins) (Brambillasca,
Zunino and Cajarville 2015). Hence, the pure cellulose, wheat
bran and alfalfa differ in their chemical composition, which may
account for their different effect on the microbial composition.
The effect of fibres also differs in the gut location in the present
study. Most of the effects were observed in the cecum, but not
the proximal and distal colon. It is known that the degree of fibre
degradation varies in different gut locations. For example, cellu-
lose is degraded by splitting the terminal sugar from the poly-
mer step by step (Drochner 1993). Therefore, the digesta tran-
sit time in the large intestine may affect the degree of cellulose
degradation.
The alfalfa diet had more impact on the microbial commu-
nity than other diets. The alfalfa diet increased the relative
abundance of bacteria related to Sporobacter termitidis in the ce-
cum. Sp. termitidis belongs to Clostridium cluster IV group. The
relative abundance of Coprococcus eutactus was also increased in
Clostridia that is characterised by its butyrate-producing abil-
ity. This process is associated with the butyrate kinase path-
way (Louis and Flint 2009). Butyrate has been found as a health-
promoting metabolite, as it can induce the differentiation of
regulatory T cells and has anti-inflammatory function (Lee and
Hase 2014; Mu, Yang and Zhu 2015). For example, it has been
shown that bacteria closely related with C. eutactus had higher
relative abundance in healthy people than in people with irri-
table bowel syndrome (Salonen, de Vos and Palva 2010). The in-
crease of these potentially beneficial bacteria may suggest the
potential to improve intestinal microbiota by the alfalfa supple-
mentation in the creep feed.
Interestingly, at the species level, the alfalfa diet had the low-
est abundance of Streptococcus suis both in the cecum and distal
colon, when comparing with other diets. Streptococcus suis is an
important pathogen that induces bacterial mortality of piglets
after weaning (Lun et al. 2007). Our previous study showed that
the abundance of S. suis was increased in the stomach and was
predominant in the digesta of the jejunum and ileum in wean-
ing piglets compared to the pre-weaning situation (Su et al. 2008).
Thus, the decrease of S. suis in the present study further showed
the potential application of the alfalfa supplementation to im-
prove intestinal health.
The wheat bran diet also affected the microbial composition.
It decreased Lactobacillus paracasei relatives and Streptococcus suis
in the distal colon, when compared with the control diet. L. para-
casei is a lactic-acid-producing bacteria. It has been found to be
a beneficial bacterium in the gut (Orlando et al. 2012). As dis-
cussed above, S. suis may be detrimental to gut health. However,
whether the wheat bran diet is beneficial to the gut is not clear.
The potential alteration of the epithelial response may be useful
for solving the issue, which needs further investigation.
The dietary supplementation with pure cellulose increased
the relative abundance of bacteria related to Prevotella rumini-
cola. P. ruminicola is a major cellulolytic bacterium in ruminants.
Similar to ruminants, adult pigs also contain active P. ruminicola
in the large intestine, where it is responsible for fibre degrada-
tion (Varel and Yen 1997). Prevotella ruminicola could degrade the
cellulose-derived carboxymethylcellulose at low pH (Russell and
Wilson 1996). A P. ruminicola-like bacterium has been found to be
the predominant bacterium that is responsible for fermentation
 6 FEMS Microbiology Letters, 2016, Vol. 363, No. 14
of gum arabic in the cecum of adult pigs (Kishimoto et al. 2006).
Although the cellulose itself may be non-digestible for suckling
piglets, it seems that dietary supplementation with pure cellu-
lose may possibly stimulate the bacteria involved in cellulose
degradation in suckling piglets.
During the past few years, an increasing number of stud-
ies has employed next-generation sequencing for the inves-
tigation of microbial communities associated with dietary fi-
bres (Dicksved, Jansson and Lindberg 2015; Kanengoni 2015; Niu
et al. 2015), but to our knowledge, most of such studies were fo-
cused on post-weaning piglets. Based on the results from suck-
ling piglets in the present study, further investigations can be
focused on the effects of certain fibres, such as alfalfa, e.g. with
respect to how dietary alfalfa regulates microbes–mucosa inter-
action in suckling piglets.
In conclusion, our results suggested that a moderate increase
in the dietary inclusion of pure cellulose, wheat bran and al-
falfa affected the microbial communities in the large intestine
of suckling piglets, and that the alfalfa inclusion produced some
beneficial effects on the microbial communities.
SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Supplementary data are available at FEMSLE online.
FUNDING
The work was partly supported by Natural Science Foundation
of China (31430082) and the National Key Basic Research Pro-
gram of China (2013CB127300), China-EU Science and Technol-
ogy Cooperation Programme (1008) and the Royal Netherlands
Academy of Arts and Sciences (project no. 09CDP006). We fur-
thermore would like to thank the European Framework Pro-
gramme 7 for support through project ‘INTERPLAY’ (project no.
227549).
Conflict of interest. None declared.
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