Early life microbiome perturbations can have important effects on host development, physiology and behaviour. In this longitudinal study, we evaluated the impact of early feeding on gut microbiome colonization in neonatal piglets. Early-fed (EF) piglets had access to a customized fibrous diet from 2 days after birth until weaning in addition to mother's milk, whereas control piglets suckled mother's milk only. Rectal swabs were collected at multiple time points until 6 weeks of age to investigate microbiota development using 16S rRNA gene profiling. The dynamic pre-weaning microbiota colonization was followed by a relatively stable post-weaning microbiota, represented by Prevotella, Roseburia, Faecalibacterium, Ruminococcus, Megasphaera, Catenibacterium and Subdoligranulum. EF piglets showed an accelerated microbiota maturation, characterized by increased microbial diversity, pre-weaning emergence of post-weaning-associated microbes and a more rapid decline of typical pre-weaning microbes. Furthermore, the individual eating behaviour scores of piglets quantitatively correlated with their accelerated microbiome. Importantly, EF piglets displayed a smoother relative weight gain and tended to reach a higher relative weight gain, in addition to reduced diarrhoea scores in the first week post-weaning. Overall, these findings demonstrate the beneficial impact of early feeding on microbiota development as well as pig health and performance during the weaning transition.

中文翻译：

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早期喂养可加速肠道微生物群的成熟并抑制仔猪断奶后的急性应激

生命早期微生物组的扰动会对宿主的发育、生理和行为产生重要影响。在这项纵向研究中，我们评估了早期喂养对新生仔猪肠道微生物群落定植的影响。早期喂养 (EF) 的仔猪从出生后 2 天到断奶，除了母乳外，还可以使用定制的纤维饮食，而对照仔猪只吃母乳。在 6 周龄之前的多个时间点收集直肠拭子，以使用 16S rRNA 基因分析来研究微生物群的发育。动态断奶前微生物群定植之后是相对稳定的断奶后微生物群，以普氏菌属、罗斯氏菌属、粪杆菌属、瘤胃球菌属、巨球菌属、链状杆菌属和细粒菌属。EF仔猪表现出加速的微生物群成熟，其特征是微生物多样性增加，断奶前出现断奶后相关微生物以及典型断奶前微生物的更快下降。此外，仔猪的个体进食行为得分与其加速的微生物组定量相关。重要的是，除了断奶后第一周的腹泻评分降低外，EF 仔猪的相对增重更平稳，并且往往达到更高的相对增重。总体而言，这些发现证明了早期饲喂对断奶过渡期间的微生物群发育以及猪的健康和生产性能的有益影响。