Evaluation of the fecal microbiota of horses with metabolic syndrome

This study evaluated the fecal bacterial microbiota in horses with equine metaboilc syndrome (EMS) compared to healthy controls. It involved single point-in-time collection of feces from horses with EMS and no other apparent clinical abnormalities, along with samples from controls. The objective was to characterize the fecal bacterial microbiota of horses with EMS and to compare that to unaffected horses. Ten horses with EMS and 10 controls were studied. Fecal bacterial microbiota samples were collected from horses stabled in Lexington, Kentucky, United States in the Summer 2013. Sample processing was conducted in 2015 involving the generation of sequence files by Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA gene (V4 region) amplicons.