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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1477032
Tracheal and Cloacal Bacterial Diversity of Red listed Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca)
Provisionally accepted
Marine Murtskhvaladze1*
Levan Ninua1
Nika Budagashvili2
Ekaterine Tevdoradze1Zurab Gurgenidze2
Adam Kotorashvili3Nato Kotaria3
Aleksandre Gavashelishvili1
Zurab Javakhishvili1- 1Faculty of Natural Sciences and Medicine, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
- 2SABUKO Society for Nature Conservation, Tbilisi, Georgia
- 3L. Sakvarelidze National Center for Disease Control and Public Health., Tbilisi, Georgia
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This study aimed to improve knowledge of raptor microbiomes by providing the first description of tracheal and cloacal bacterial diversity of Eastern Imperial Eagles (Aquila heliaca). To date, only few studies are available and they are carried out mainly on captive birds. The Eastern Imperial Eagle is species of significant conservation concern and therefore characterisation microbiota contributes valuable information to the field of avian microbiology and aids in conservation efforts for this threatened species, moreover, identification of avian and human pathogens within microbial communities and evaluation of potential threats to birds, humans, and other species are crucial for sustainably balancing the well-being of ecosystems, 3500 OTUs were identified from each sample supported by ~ 2.8 Million sequence reads. The tracheal and cloacal microbiomes were dominated by Gammaproteobacteria (67.5%), Bacilli (43.8%) and Negativicutes (22.0%). We detected dissimilarities between cloacal (unique 440 OTUs) and tracheal (337 unique OTUs) samples, and significant evidence of moderate positive monotonic relationship between cloacal and tracheal bacterial communities. No significant differences between individuals from different nests.Aquila heliaca can serve as an indicator of presence of bacterial species in its respective habitats. Efforts aiming at protection of red-listed birds may not presently prioritise microbiome considerations but integrating microbiome research into conservation strategies could yield significant benefits.
Keywords: Eastern Imperial Eagle, tracheal bacterias, cloacal bacterias, 16S rRNA, conservation
Received: 06 Aug 2024; Accepted: 16 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Murtskhvaladze, Ninua, Budagashvili, Tevdoradze, Gurgenidze, Kotorashvili, Kotaria, Gavashelishvili and Javakhishvili. 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: Marine Murtskhvaladze, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Medicine, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, 0162, Georgia
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