Equine fecal microbiota Raw sequence reads. Equine fecal microbiota

A healthy gastrointestinal (GI) tract with a properly established microbiota is necessary for a foal to develop into a healthy weanling. In this study, we hypothesized that gut establishment in the foal transitioning from a diet of milk to a diet of grain, forage, and pasture would be detectable through analyses of the fecal microbiotas. Fecal samples from 42 sets of foals and mares were collected at multiple time points ranging from birth to weaning. Bacterial DNA was isolated from the samples, and the V4 domains of bacterial 16S rRNA genes were amplified via polymerase chain reaction. Analyses were performed to characterize the microbiome as well as the relative abundance of microbiota present.