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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 15 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1403930
Exploring the gut microbiota of healthy captive Asian elephants from various locations in Yunnan, China Authors
Provisionally accepted- 1 Southwest Forestry University, Kunming, China
- 2 Yunnan Academy of Forestry, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
- 3 Center of Elephant and Wildlife Health, Big Animal Hospital, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
- 4 Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is a giant herbivore classified as an endangered wildlife species by the International Union for Conservation of Threatened Species. In this study, we investigated and compared the core microbiota in the guts of captive Asian elephants from three locations in Yunnan Province, China. Alpha diversity using Chao1 and Shannon diversity indexes quantifies microbial differences between groups, indicating that the microbial profiles in the YeXiangGu group were higher than the other groups. The Bray-Curtis and Euclidean distance metrics revealed significant differences among the microbial communities. Two principal coordinate analysis plots using the Bray-Curtis and Euclidean distance metrics visualized the percentage variations in the microbial profiles. These findings indicate that the visualized percentage of microbial variation may be attributed to differences in their habitats and husbandry factors.According to the relative abundance, phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, which mainly comprise cellulose-degrading bacteria that produce energy for the hosts, were higher in the guts of Asian elephants. The family-level classification shows Synergistaceae with the highest abundance in the MengHai group, followed by the YuanTongShan and YeXiangGu. In the YeXiangGu group, Lachnospiraceae was the richest, whereas Pirellulaceae was the highest in the YuanTongShan group. Genus p-1008-a5-gut-group was higher in YeXiangGu, whereas Prevotella was more abundant in the MengHai group, emphasizing the importance of certain bacterial taxa in maintaining host-microbial interactions. In addition, several bacterial species, including Lactobacillus fermentum, Clostridium neonatale, Enterococcus mundtii, Klebsiella huaxiensis, Corynebacterium nasicanis, Streptococcus equinus, etc., were identified in the guts of Asian elephants.These findings underscore the impact of environmental and husbandry factors on the gut microbiota of Asian elephants, highlighting the importance of animal captivity to promote microbial diversity for health benefits.
Keywords: Elephas maximus, captivity, microbiota, Rescue of wild, gut
Received: 21 Mar 2024; Accepted: 19 Aug 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Wang, Zhou, Bao, Shah, Zheng, Li, Hou, Wang and Yuan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yixuan Wang, Yunnan Academy of Forestry, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan Province, China
Jiuxuan Zhou, Yunnan Academy of Forestry, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan Province, China
Mingwei Bao, Center of Elephant and Wildlife Health, Big Animal Hospital, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Taif Shah, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, Yunnan Province, China
Jing Zheng, Yunnan Academy of Forestry, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan Province, China
Qian Li, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, Yunnan Province, China
Yutong Hou, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, Yunnan Province, China
Binghui Wang, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, Yunnan Province, China
Ruiling Yuan, Yunnan Academy of Forestry, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan Province, China
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