Microbiota of upper and lower respiratory tract in piedmontese calves

The microbiota of the bovine upper respiratory tract has been recently characterized, but no data for the lower respiratory tract are available. A major health problem in bovine medicine is infectious bronchopneumonia, the most common respiratory syndrome affecting cattle. With this study we used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to characterize and compare the microbial community composition of the upper and lower respiratory tracts in calves.