Assessing the impact of diet on the mucosa-adhered microbiomes using comparative analysis of rectal swabs and colon content

In this study, we aim to specifically investigating the mucosa-adhered populations in rectal swabs by comparative microbiota analysis with paired colonic content samples (collected at the same time-point). This allowed us to evaluate the impact of early-life feeding (fibrous-feed supplementation) on the mucosa-adhered microbiota in piglets, particularly taxa such as Escherichia-Shigella which could be relevant especially in the pig industry for tackling post-weaning stress and diarrhoea. More importantly, we evaluate the predictability of the mucosa-adhered population in an individual sample, employing the comparative analysis of paired swab-colon microbiota information from a subset of animals.Paired samples of rectal swabs and colon luminal contents were collected from piglets just before weaning during two independent but similarly designed animal experiments.