Comparison of the intestinal bacterial communies between sympatric wintering hooded crane (Grus monacha) and domestic goose (Anser anser domesticus)

Gut microbiota play an important role in affecting host health. Wild birds often appear in the symatric habitats which poultry use, as may cause the he mutual transmission of intestinal microbes. However, there are relatively few studies on the intestinal microbes of wild birds and poultry of sympatric environmental factors. Here, we compared the intestinal bacterial communities between hooded crane and the domestic goose at Shengjin Lake of China, using high-throughput sequencing technology (Illumina Mi-Seq). The results showed that that the dominant bacterial phyla are Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Chloroflexi both in hooded crane and the domestic goose. However, their abundance differed significantly between groups. Firmicutes were significantly higher in hooded crane, while Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Chloroflexi were significantly higher in the domestic goose. Our study revealed significant differences of gut bacterial community composition between hooded crane and the domestic goose although no significant variations of the alpha diversity. These results indicate that endogenous and diet factors may be a key factor shaping the intestinal bacterial community compositions than shared environment. In addition, potential pathogens were detected in both guts of the two hosts. The two hosts carried significantly different potentially pathogenic compositions and diversity, suggesting the divergence of potentially pathogenic communities between hooded crane and the domestic goose. Our results showed strong evidence of the significant changes in intestinal bacterial and potential pathogenic bacteria communities between hooded crane and domestic goose, which contributes to evaluating the outbreak risk of bacterial diseases across the region and provide theoretical basis for wild bird population protection and poultry disease prevention and control.