Colonisation of newborn piglets with a mixture of Bacteroides species improves their gut health and performance

Orally administered Bacteroides efficiently colonised piglets from day 1 of life without any adverse effects. First three tests were performed at the same farm from which all Bacteroides strains were cultured and the tests focused on the ability of used strains to colonise and their safety. This farm routinely used intramuscular amoxycillin administration to control neonatal diarrhea. The fourth experiment was performed at another farm which did not use antibiotics when testing Bacteroides probiotic product. Microbiota composition in 32 piglets in ATB group, 14 piglets in PA group, 26 piglets in P1 group, 10 piglets in P2 group and 11 piglets in CTRL group was characterised by 16S rRNA sequencing.Bacteroides treatment affected intestinal abundance of several other taxa.In this study we showed that Bacteroides sp. can be tested as safe probiotics for newborn piglets.