Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.

Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1470731

This article is part of the Research Topic Gut Microbiota Modulation to Mitigate Stress-Induced Functional Changes View all 11 articles

Integrated metabolomics and intestinal microbiota approach to reveal anti-post-weaning diarrhea mechanisms of Modified Yupingfeng Granule in Rex rabbits

Provisionally accepted
Dongbo Li Dongbo Li 1Chao Li Chao Li 1Ning Liu Ning Liu 2Hanzhong Liu Hanzhong Liu 2Zhiju Yu Zhiju Yu 2Quanjin Liu Quanjin Liu 1Gang Shu Gang Shu 1Juchun Lin Juchun Lin 1Wei Zhang Wei Zhang 1Guangneng Peng Guangneng Peng 1Ling Zhao Ling Zhao 1Huaqiao Tang Huaqiao Tang 1Haohuan Li Haohuan Li 1Funeng Xu Funeng Xu 1Hualin Fu Hualin Fu 1*
  • 1 Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, China
  • 2 Sichuan Academy of Grassland Science, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Post-weaning Diarrhea (PWD) is a kind of physiological stress diarrhea in Rex rabbits after weaning, which can lead to death in severe cases. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been widely used in animal due to its advantages of natural origin, diverse functions, safety, reliability, economy and environmental protection. Modified Yupingfeng Granule (MYPFG) is an improved Yupingfeng prescription based on the famous traditional Chinese prescription Yupingfeng (YPF), which is combined with other TCM and has obvious synergistic and additive activity in order to obtain an excellent natural medicine for PWD. In this study, 120 weaned Rex rabbits were randomly allocated to 4 treatment groups, including control (CON), low dose (LD), medium dose (MD), high dose (HD). Rabbits were fed a control diet or a different MYPFG proportions of diet for 30 days. Results showed that MYPFG increased average daily gain, villus length to crypt depth ratio and decreased the feed to meat ratio, diarrhea frequency, mortality rate, depth of crypt (P<0.05). The study also combined 16S rRNA analysis of intestinalgut microbiota and cecal contents metabolomics to explore the MYPFG effect on weaned Rex rabbits. The intestinal microbiotaflora test found that MYPFG could change the abundances of Patescibacteria, Sphingobium, Ruminococcus and Oxalobacter. Metabolomics analysis found that effect may be related to its regulation of Glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, Arginine and proline metabolism. Nicotinate and nicotinamide metabolism. MYPFG could regulate intestinal microbiotaflora and change the metabolic pathway of some amino acids to alleviate the PWD in Rex rabbits.

    Keywords: Modified Yupingfeng Granule, post-weaning diarrhea, intestinal microbiota, Metabolomics PWD, Post-weaning Diarrhea, TCM, traditional Chinese medicine, YPFP, Yupingfeng Powder, MYPFG, Modified Yupingfeng Granule, HPLC, high-performance liquid chromatography

    Received: 26 Jul 2024; Accepted: 17 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Li, Li, Liu, Liu, Yu, Liu, Shu, Lin, Zhang, Peng, Zhao, Tang, Li, Xu and Fu. 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: Hualin Fu, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

    Research integrity at Frontiers

    Man ultramarathon runner in the mountains he trains at sunset

    95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good

    Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.


    Find out more