Effect of antibiotics on the bacterial population of the rabbit caecum
Leticia Abecia
Departamento de Producción Animal y Ciencia de los Alimentos, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Search for more papers by this authorManuel Fondevila
Departamento de Producción Animal y Ciencia de los Alimentos, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Search for more papers by this authorJoaquim Balcells
Departamento de Producción Animal y Ciencia de los Alimentos, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Search for more papers by this authorJoan E. Edwards
Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK
Search for more papers by this authorC. James Newbold
Institute of Rural Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK
Search for more papers by this authorNeil R. McEwan
Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Institute of Rural Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK
Search for more papers by this authorLeticia Abecia
Departamento de Producción Animal y Ciencia de los Alimentos, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Search for more papers by this authorManuel Fondevila
Departamento de Producción Animal y Ciencia de los Alimentos, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Search for more papers by this authorJoaquim Balcells
Departamento de Producción Animal y Ciencia de los Alimentos, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Search for more papers by this authorJoan E. Edwards
Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK
Search for more papers by this authorC. James Newbold
Institute of Rural Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK
Search for more papers by this authorNeil R. McEwan
Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Institute of Rural Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK
Search for more papers by this authorEditor: William Wade
Abstract
The effect feeding antibiotics has on the bacterial population of the rabbit caecum was investigated. No changes in total volatile fatty acid production or total bacterial counts were observed compared with nonantibiotic treated controls. However, treatment with chlortetracycline resulted in an increase of propionate at the apparent cost of butyrate (P<0.05). Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis indicated that the two antibiotics that inhibit protein synthesis (chlortetracycline and tiamulin) exerted the most similar changes on the bacterial population structure, decreasing the diversity of the profiles. Sequence analysis of DNA from excised denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis bands was carried out. The majority of the sequences observed were most similar to bacterial sequences previously described in other gut environments, with 11% being most similar to those previously reported from the rabbit, and 95% of the sequences having 95% or greater identity to sequences already in GenBank.
References
- Abecia L, Fondevila M, Balcells J, Belenguer A & Decaux M (2002) Effect of antibiotics or acidifiers in feed on rabbit caecal population and metabolism given in corn or acorn/sorghum diet. Reprod Nutr Develop 42: S57.
- Abecia L, Balcells J, Fondevila M, Belenguer A & Calleja L (2005) Effect of therapeutic doses of antibiotics in diet on digestibility and caecal fermentation in growing rabbits. Anim Res 54: 493–498.
- Abecia L, Fondevila M, Balcells J, Edwards JE, Newbold CJ & McEwan NR (2005) Molecular profiling of bacterial species in the rabbit caecum. FEMS Microbiol Lett 244: 111–115.
- Amann RI, Ludwig W & Schleifer KH (1995) Phylogenetic identification and in situ detection of individual microbial cells without cultivation. Microbiol Rev 59: 143–169.
- Bennegadi N, Fonty G, Millet L, Gidenne T & Licois D (2002) Caecal microflora of growing-rabbits affected by a non specific enteropathy. Reprod Nutr Develop 42: S15.
- Carabaño R, Rebollar PG, Gómez-Conde MS, Chamorro S, García J & De Blas C (2005) Nuevas tendencias en la alimentación de conejos: influencia de la nutrición sobre la salud intestinal XXI curso de especialización fedna. pp 113–129.
- Chopra I & Roberts M (2001) Tetracycline antibiotics: mode of action, applications, molecular biology, and epidemiology of bacterial resistance. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 65: 232–260.
- Davis B D & Feingold D S (1962) Antimicrobial agents: mechanism of action and use in metabolic studies. The Bacteria, Vol. 4. ( IC Gunsalus & RY Stanier, eds), pp. 343–397. Academic Press Inc., New York.
- Dehority BA, Tirabasso PA & Grifo AP (1989) Most-probable-number procedures for enumerating ruminal bacteria, including the simultaneous estimation of total and cellulolytic numbers in one medium. Appl Environ Microbiol 55: 2789–2792.
- Dornhelm P & Hogenauer G (1978) The effects of tiamulin, a semisynthetic pleuromutilin derivative, on bacterial polypeptide chain initiation. Eur J Biochem 91: 465–473.
- Edwards JE, McEwan NR, Travis AJ & Wallace RJ (2004) 16S rDNA library-based analysis of ruminal bacterial diversity. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 86: 263–281.
- Felsenstein J (1989) PHYLIP – phylogeny inference package (version 3.2). Cladistics 5: 164–166.
- Gidenne T & Fortun-Lamothe L (2002) Feeding strategy for young rabbits around-weaning: a review of digestive capacity and nutritional needs. Anim Sci 75: 169–184.
- Hillman K (2001) Bacteriological aspects of the use of antibiotics and their alteration in the feed of non-ruminant animals. Recent Advances in Animal Nutrition 2001 ( PC Garnsworthy & J Wiseman, eds), pp. 107–134. Nottingham University Press, Nottingham, UK.
- Hopkins MJ & Macfarlane GT (2002) Changes in predominant bacterial populations in human faeces with age and with Clostridium difficile infection. J Med Microbiol 51: 448–454.
- Jouany JP (1982) Volatile fatty acid and alcohol determination in digestive contents, silage juices, bacterial cultures and anaerobic fermentor contents. Science Des Aliments 2: 131–144.
- Klein U & Miller D (2004) Use of Tiamutin® for the Treatment of the Epizootic rabbit Enterocolitis (ERE) Síndrome, Novartis Animal Health Inc., Basel, Switzerland.
- Kocherginskaya SA, Aminov RI & White BA (2001) Analysis of the Rumen bacterial diversity under two different diet conditions using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, random sequencing, and statistical ecology approaches. Anaerobe 7: 119–134.
- Kowalchuk GA, Stephen JR, De Boer W, Prosser JI, Embley TM & Woldendorp JW (1997) Analysis of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria of the b subdivision of the class Proteobacteria in coastal sand dunes by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and sequencing of PCR-amplified 16s ribosomal DNA fragments. Appl Environ Microbiol 63: 1489–1497.
- Laguna M (2004) Antibioterapia en cunicultura vía pienso medicado. Cunicultura 29: 79–84.
- Leser TD, Amenuvor JZ, Jensen TK, Lindecrona RH, Boye M & Møller K (2002) Culture-independent analysis of gut bacteria: the pig gastrointestinal tract microbiota revisited. Appl Environ Microbiol 68: 673–690.
- Lu J, Idris U, Harmon B, Hofacre C, Maurer JJ & Lee MD (2003) Diversity and succession of the intestinal bacterial community of the maturing broiler chicken. Appl Environ Microbiol 69: 6816–6824.
- Maertens L (1992) Rabbit nutrition and feeding: a review of some recent developments. J Appl Rabbit Res 15: 889–913.
- McEwan NR, Abecia L, Regensbogenova M, Adam CL, Findlay PA & Newbold CJ (2005) Rumen microbial population dynamics in response to photoperiod. Lett Appl Microbiol 41: 97–101.
- Muyzer G, De Waal EC & Uitterlinden AG (1993) Profiling of complex microbial populations by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis of polymerase chain reaction-amplified genes coding for 16S rRNA. Appl Environ Microbiol 59: 695–700.
- Page RDM (1996) TREEVIEW: an application to display phylogenetic trees on personal computers. Comput Appl Biosci 12: 357–358.
- Pérez de Rozas AM, Roca M, Carabaño R et al. (2004) A comparative study of intestinal microbial diversity from birds, pigs and rabbits by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Reprod Nutr Develop 44: S4.
- Regensbogenova M, Pristas P, Javorsky P, Moon-van der Staay SY, Van Der Staay GWM, Hackstein JHP, Newbold CJ & McEwan NR (2004) Assessment of ciliates in the sheep rumen by DGGE. Lett Appl Microbiol 39: 144–147.
- Schwiege F & Tebbe CC (1998) A new approach to utilize PCR-single-strand-conformation polymorphism for 16S rRNA gene-based microbial community analysis. Appl Environ Microbiol 64: 4870–4876.
- Woodmansey EJ, McMurdo ME, Macfarlane GT & Macfarlane S (2004) Comparison of compositions and metabolic activities of fecal microbiotas in young adults and in antibiotic-treated and non-antibiotic-treated elderly subjects. Appl Environ Microbiol 70: 6113–6122.
