Verbeek, Else and Keeling, Linda and Landberg, Rikard and Lindberg, Jan Erik and Dicksved, Johan
(2021).
The gut microbiota and microbial metabolites are associated with tail biting in pigs.
Scientific Reports. 11
, 20547
[Research article]
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Abstract
Tail biting is an abnormal behaviour that causes stress, injury and pain. Given the critical role of the gut-microbiota in the development of behavioural problems in humans and animals, the aim of this study was to determine whether pigs that are biters, victims of tail biting or controls (nine matched sets of pigs) have a different microbiota composition, diversity and microbial metabolite profile. We collected faecal and blood samples from each individual for analysis. The gut microbiota composition was most different between the biter and the control pigs, with a higher relative abundance of Firmicutes in tail biter pigs than the controls. Furthermore, we detected differences in faecal and plasma short chain fatty acids (SCFA) profiles between the biter and victim pigs, suggesting physiological differences even though they are kept in the same pen. Thus, in addition to supporting an association between the gut microbiota and tail biting in pigs, this study also provides the first evidence of an association between tail biting and SCFA. Therefore, further research is needed to confirm these associations, to determine causality and to study how the SCFA profiles of an individual play a role in the development of tail biting behaviour.
Authors/Creators: | Verbeek, Else and Keeling, Linda and Landberg, Rikard and Lindberg, Jan Erik and Dicksved, Johan | ||||||
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Title: | The gut microbiota and microbial metabolites are associated with tail biting in pigs | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Scientific Reports | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2021 | ||||||
Volume: | 11 | ||||||
Article number: | 20547 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 14 | ||||||
Publisher: | NATURE PORTFOLIO | ||||||
ISSN: | 2045-2322 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 403 Veterinary Science > Clinical Science (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 106 Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4) > Microbiology (Microbiology in the medical area to be 30109) (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 402 Animal and Dairy Science > Animal and Dairy Science. | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-114172 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-114172 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 25985 | ||||||
Faculty: | VH - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science | ||||||
Department: | (VH) > Dept. of Animal Environment and Health (VH) > Dept. of Animal Nutrition and Management | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 29 Oct 2021 08:25 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 03 Nov 2021 12:11 |
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