The microbiome of healthy fecal donor horses and recipients undergoing microbial transplantation for the treatment of diarrhea. Experiment_horses

Fecal microbial transplantation (FMT), a treatment for certain gastrointestinal conditions associated with dysbiosis in people, is also empirically employed in horses with colitis. We used high-throughput sequencing to compare the fecal microbial profile of healthy horses to that of microbial transplant recipients experiencing diarrhea, and to test whether FMT restores microbiome diversity. The fecal microbiome of horses with diarrhea was significantly more variable (higher β-diversity) than that of healthy horses. An inverse correlation between diarrhea score and relative abundance of Verrucomicrobia was identified in FMT recipients. At study completion, the fecal microbiome of horses which responded to FMT was more diverse (higher α-diversity) and phylogenetically more similar to that of the donor.