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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1498050
This article is part of the Research Topic Unravelling the Unknown of the Rumen Microbiome: Implications for Animal Health, Productivity, and Beyond View all 18 articles
Discrepancies in the rumen microbiome, metabolome and serum metabolome among Hu sheep, East Friesian sheep and East Friesian*Hu Crossbred sheep
Provisionally accepted
Ruilin Du 1*
Shuo Yan 1 Wenna Yao 1 Huimin Zhang 1 Yue Xue 1 Yulong Zhao 1
Guifang Cao 2
Jun Liu 3 Yong Zhang 3
Xihe Li 1
Siqin Bao 1 Yongli Song 1*- 1 Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China
- 2 Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China
- 3 Northwest A&F University, Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, China
Crossbreeding has emerged as a strategy to combine desirable traits from different sheep breeds, aiming to improve productivity, disease resistance, and growth rates. This study compares the immune responses, rumen microbiomes, and serum metabolites of Hu sheep, East Friesian (EF) sheep and crossbred Hu × EF (DH) sheep to explore the effects of crossbreeding on productivity and disease resistance. Hu sheep exhibited significantly higher lymphocyte counts (P < 0.05) and white blood cell counts (P < 0.05) compared to EF and DH sheep, indicating stronger basal immune responses. DH sheep showed superior immune responses, with a higher CD4/CD8+ T cell ratio (P < 0.05) compared to EF sheep. Rumen microbiome analysis revealed distinct microbial profiles, DH sheep had higher relative abundances of Prevotella (P < 0.05), associated with improved growth and disease resistance.Metabolomic analysis identified significant differences in bile acid profiles: DH sheep exhibited higher levels of 6-ketoLCA, CDCA and 3β-HDCA (P < 0.05), linked to enhanced immune function and gut health. These results suggest that crossbreeding enhances immune resilience and metabolic efficiency, with implications for breeding strategies aimed at improving livestock productivity and disease resistance.
Keywords: Sheep, Crossbred sheep, Rumen microbiome, untargeted metabolomics, blie acids
Received: 18 Sep 2024; Accepted: 21 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Du, Yan, Yao, Zhang, Xue, Zhao, Cao, Liu, Zhang, Li, Bao and Song. 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:
Ruilin Du, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China
Yongli Song, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China
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