Fecal microbiome in animals

Understanding the ecological dynamics of O157:H7 and associated alterations in the animal intestinal microbiome are important to develop strategies to reduce O157:H7 shedding and mitigate outbreaks. To assess the compositional differences in the fecal microbiota of O157:H7 shedding and non-shedding animals, a total of 14 fecal samples from a single farm were analyzed using next-generation shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Findings indicated there may be subtle differences associated with O157:H7 carriage in the fecal metagenomes. The differential taxa and virulence factor -related gene profiles provide significant insights into fecal microbiome of O157:H7 shedding animals.