The Impact of Benzoic Acid Supplementation on Intestinal Microbiome in Suckling Lambs

A total of 40 male newborn Hu sheep lambs were randomly divided into control and benzoic acid supplementation groups. From the 3rd day after birth, each lamb in the BA group was fed 100 mg of benzoic acid daily, and their body weights were recorded. On the 28th day before slaughter, five lambs from each group were randomly selected to collect plasma samples and were then sacrificed. Duodenal, jejunal, ileal, and cecal digesta were collected for microbial community and metabonomics analyses. The results of 16S rDNA amplification sequencing revealed that benzoic acid supplementation increased the relative abundance of jejunal Firmicutes and decreased that of ileal Proteobacteria in suckling lambs.