Balantioides coli is a ciliated parasite that can cause diarrhea when inhabiting the colon and cecum of pigs and humans. However, information regarding the changes in structure and composition of the gut microbiome in piglets infected with B. coli remains scarce. In this study, 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing was conducted on fecal samples from both B. coli-positive piglets with diarrhea and B. coli-negative piglets without diarrhea. The results showed that Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were the major phyla in the two groups, and the relative abundance of the phylum Firmicutes, including Ruminococcaceae and Clostridiaceae, was significantly lower in the B. coli-positive samples than in the B. coli-negative ones (p < 0.05). Compared with B. coli-negative samples, Alloprevotella and Faecalibacterium showed distinctly higher relative abundances (p < 0.05) in the B. coli-positive samples, and the abundances of some potential pathogenic bacteria, including Escherichia-Shigella and Campylobacter, were positively correlated with B. coli infection and diarrhea of weaned piglets. In addition, there were statistically significant differences in fecal microbiota diversity and abundances of predicted functional genes between B. coli-colonized and B. coli-negative samples (p < 0.05). Taken together, these findings suggest that there were significant differences in the bacterial community composition, diversity, and functions between the B. coli-positive and B. coli-negative piglets, and the colonization by B. coli may be associated with the dysbiosis of gut microbiota structure in weaned piglets.

Balantioides大肠杆菌是一种纤毛虫，在猪和人的结肠和盲肠中生活时会引起腹泻。然而，对于在感染仔猪的变化结构和肠道微生物组成的信息B.大肠杆菌依然稀少。在这项研究中，对有腹泻的B. coli阳性仔猪和无腹泻的B. coli阴性仔猪的粪便样本进行了16S rDNA扩增子测序。结果表明，厚壁菌门和拟杆菌分别在两个组的主要门类，和门的相对丰度厚壁菌门，包括Ruminococcaceae和梭菌在大肠杆菌阳性样品中，β1显着低于在大肠杆菌阴性样品中（p <0.05）。相比B.大肠杆菌阴性样本，Alloprevotella和Faecalibacterium显示明显更高的相对丰度（p <0.05）中B.大肠杆菌阳性样本和一些潜在的病原性细菌，包括的丰度大肠杆菌-志贺氏菌和弯曲杆菌，呈正相关与大肠杆菌断奶仔猪的感染和腹泻。此外，在大肠杆菌定殖的样本和大肠杆菌阴性的样本之间，粪便微生物群多样性和预测功能基因的丰度在统计学上有显着差异（p  <0.05）。总之，这些研究结果表明，有在细菌群落组成显著差异，多样性，和之间的功能B. coli-阳性和B. coli-负仔猪，并通过定殖B.大肠杆菌可以与的生态失调相关联断奶仔猪的肠道菌群结构。