Pig gut Metagenome

During the suckling period, piglets are commonly hooused in the same pen as their mother sows until weaning. Mother's feces are a rich source of microbes for the colonization of the neonatal gut. Mostly, maturational changes in the bacterial community of piglet's gut have been investigated in the past, whereas other microbial groups, such as fungi, received less attention. In the present study, we could show that the bacterial and fungal communities in sow feces changed with progressing lactation and that bacterial and fungal taxa present in sow feces were also present in gastric and cecal digesta of the suckling piglets.