Maternal milk, a main source of nutrition for neonates in early life, has attracted attention. An increasing number of studies have found that maternal milk has a high microbial diversity, as well as factors that might influence this diversity. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the effects of host diet and phylogeny on maternal milk microbes and the contribution of the maternal milk microbiota to the neonatal gut microbiota. Here, we analyzed the maternal milk and fecal microbiota of nine species (lion, dog, panda, human, mouse, rhesus macaque, cow, goat, and rabbit) of mammals of three type groups (herbivore, omnivore, and carnivore) using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Our study provided evidence of host diet and phylogeny on the maternal milk microbiota. Moreover, functional prediction revealed that the carnivores had a significantly higher percentage of base excision repair, glycerolipid metabolism, taurine and hypotaurine metabolism, inorganic ion transport and metabolism, and nucleotide metabolism; while arginine and proline metabolism showed enrichment in the herbivore group. Source-tracking analysis showed that the contributions of bacteria from maternal milk to the microbiota of neonates of different mammals were different at day 3 after neonatal birth. Overall, our findings provided a theoretical basis for the maternal milk microbiota to affect neonatal fecal microbiota at day 3 after neonatal birth.

Dulong Chickens (DLCs) live at high altitude (~3000m) and humidity (~90%), which is endemic to Yunnan province, and has gradually developed unique physiological characteristics, but its genetic bas...

An orange-coloured, aerobic, motile and short-rods bacterial strain, designated EGI 6500337T, was isolated from the surface-sterilized root of a halophyte Anabasis elatior (C. A. Mey.) Schischk collected from Urumqi, Xinjiang province, north-west China. Growth occurred at 5-35 °C (optimum 30 °C), at pH 6.0-9.0 (optimum pH 7.0), and in the presence of 0-6 % NaCl (w/v) (optimum 0-1 %). Phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain EGI 6500337T formed a distinct lineage in the cluster that comprised the genera Aurantimonas and Aureimonas in the family Aurantimonadaceae. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain EGI 6500337T shared the highest similarities to those of Aurantimonas coralicida DSM 14790T (97.15 %) and Aurantimonas manganoxydans DSM 21871T (97.15 %). Strain EGI 6500337T contained Q-10 as the dominant isoprenoid quinone. The major cellular fatty acids were C18:1 7c (66.4 %) and C19:0 8c cyclo (23.3 %). The polar lipid profile of strain EGI 6500337T contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine as major components, similarly to the members of the genus Aurantimonas. The DNA G+C content of strain EGI 6500337T was 66.8 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness between strain EGI 6500337T and Aurantimonas coralicida DSM 14790T was 24.7 ± 2.9 %. On the basis of the phylogenetic analysis, chemotaxonomic data and phenotypic characteristics, strain EGI 6500337T represents a novel species of the genus Aurantimonas, for which the name Aurantimonas endophytica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is EGI 6500337T (=KCTC 52296T =CPCC 100904T).

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of oral gavage of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) to establish an enteric inflammation model in broilers. Forty 1-day-old male, yellow-feathered broilers were randomly divided into 2 groups with 5 replicates of 4 birds each for a 42-day trial. The experiment design used 2 groups: (1) the control group (CT), normal broilers fed a basal diet, and (2) the DSS group, DSS-treated broilers fed a basal diet. The DSS group received 1 mL of 2.5% DSS solution once a day by oral gavage from 21 to 29 days of age. The results showed that compared with those in CT, DSS treatment significantly increased histological scores for enteritis and mucosal damage at 29 and 42 days of age (p < 0.01) and the disease activity index (DAI) from 23 to 29 days of age (p < 0.01). DSS-treated broilers showed poor growth performance at 42 days of age, including decreased body weight and average daily gain and an increased feed conversion ratio (p < 0.01). DSS also caused gross lesions and histopathological damage in the jejunum of broilers, such as obvious hemorrhagic spots, loss of villus architecture, epithelial cell disruption, inflammatory cell infiltration, and decreased villus height. These results suggest that oral gavage of DSS is an effective method for inducing mild and non-necrotic enteric inflammation in broilers.