Cloacal Microbiome Structure in a Long-Distance Migratory Bird Assessed Using Deep 16sRNA Pyrosequencing

Effects of vertebrate-associated microbiota on physiology and health are of significant interest in current biological research. Most previous studies have focused on host-microbiota interactions in captive-bred mammalian models. These interactions and their outcomes are still relatively understudied, however, in wild populations and non-mammalian taxa. Using deep pyrosequencing, we described the cloacal microbiome (CM) composition in free living barn swallows Hirundo rustica, a long-distance migratory passerine bird. Barn swallow CM was dominated by bacteria of the Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes phyla. Bacteroidetes, which represent an important proportion of the digestive tract microbiome in many vertebrate species, was relatively rare in barn swallow CM (