Piglet microbiota succession

Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) is a significant cause of gastrointeritis and associated diarrhea in neonatal piglets, however, it does not cause clinical signs in piglets older than one week of age. It is hypothesized the increased complexity of the gastrointestinal microbiome protects piglets as they age. Here, we challenged piglets ranging from 2-14 days of age with C. difficile. Forty-eight hours post challenge, samples were collected and disease severity was assessed.