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The impact of the bovine faecal microbiome on Escherichia coli O157:H7 prevalence and enumeration in naturally infected cattle
Author(s) -
Kim M.,
Kuehn L.A.,
Bono J.L.,
Berry E.D.,
Kalchayanand N.,
Freetly H.C.,
Benson A.K.,
Wells J.E.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 1364-5072
DOI - 10.1111/jam.13545
Subject(s) - enumeration , biology , escherichia coli , prevotella , microbiome , microbiology and biotechnology , feces , bacteria , bacteroidaceae , veterinary medicine , clostridiales , zoology , clostridiaceae , genetics , medicine , mathematics , combinatorics , gene
Aims The objective of this study was to determine if the faecal microbiome has an association with Escherichia coli O157:H7 prevalence and enumeration. Methods and Results Pyrosequencing analysis of faecal microbiome was performed from feedlot cattle fed one of three diets: (i) 94 heifers fed low concentrate ( LC ) diet, (ii) 142 steers fed moderate concentrate ( MC ) diet, and (iii) 132 steers fed high concentrate ( HC ) diet. A total of 322 585 OTU s were calculated from 2,411,122 high‐quality sequences obtained from 368 faecal samples. In the LC diet group, OTU s assigned to the orders Clostridiales and RF 39 (placed within the class Mollicutes) were positively correlated with both E. coli O157:H7 prevalence and enumeration. In the MC diet group, OTU s assigned to Prevotella copri were positively correlated with both E. coli O157:H7 prevalence and enumeration, whereas OTU s assigned to Prevotella stercorea were negatively correlated with both E. coli O157:H7 prevalence and enumeration. In both the MC diet group and the HC diet group, OTU s assigned to taxa placed within Clostridiales were both positively and negatively correlated with both E. coli O157:H7 prevalence and enumeration. However, all correlations were weak. In both the MC diet group and the HC diet group, stepwise linear regression through backward elimination analyses indicated that these OTU s were significantly correlated ( P < 0·001) with prevalence or enumeration, explaining as much as 50% of variability in E. coli O157:H7 prevalence or enumeration. Conclusions Individual colonic bacterial species have little impact on E. coli O157:H7 shedding but collectively groups of bacteria were strongly associated with pathogen shedding. Significance and Impact of the Study Bacterial groups in the bovine colon may impact faecal shedding of the zoonotic pathogen E. coli O157:H7, and manipulation of the intestinal microbiota to alter these bacteria may reduce shedding of this pathogen and foodborne illnesses.