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The impact of anthelmintic treatment on gut bacterial and fungal communities in diagnosed parasite-free sika deer Cervus nippon

  • Applied genetics and molecular biotechnology
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Abstract

The gut microbiota, including both bacterial and fungal communities, plays vital roles in the gut homeostasis of animals, and antibiotics can lead to disorders of these microbial communities. The use of anthelmintic treatment to control parasitic infection has long been a standard practice, although its impact on the gut microbiota of healthy sika deer is relatively unknown. This study used next-generation sequencing based on 16S/18S/ITS rRNA genes to investigate the shifts in fecal bacterial and fungal communities in parasite-free sika deer after treatment with fenbendazole and ivermectin tablets. The α-diversity of both bacterial and fungal communities was significantly decreased (P < 0.05) after treatment, as were the bacterial genus Bacteroides and fungal genus Candida (P < 0.05). The results of β-diversity, LEfSe analysis, core community’s analysis, taxonomic composition, and functional prediction of fungal and bacterial communities confirmed the substantial impacts of anthelmintic treatment on the function and structure of the intestinal microbiota of sika deer. Nevertheless, many lines of evidence, including β-diversity, LEfSe analysis and functional prediction analysis, suggested that the anthelmintics exerted more significant influences on fungal communities than on bacterial communities, suggesting that more attention should be paid to the changes in fungal communities of sika deer under anthelmintic treatment. The present study provides evidence to support the assumption that anthelmintic drugs modify the gut microbiota of deer and serves as the first trial to test the potential effects of anthelmintics on mycobiota in ruminants using high-throughput sequencing techniques.

Key Points

• Anthelmintic treatment showed significant effects on the gut microbiota of sika deer.

• Fungi were more strongly affected by anthelmintic treatment than bacteria.

• The profile of mycobiota provides essential data that were previously absent.

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Data availability

The nucleotide sequence data reported are available in the GenBank databases under the accession number PRJNA615354. If requested, the database will withhold the release of data until publication.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ze Yang, Qinglong Yang, and other breeders of Breeding Center of sika deer in Jiangxi Province for their valuable suggestions on sample collection.

Author contribution statement

XH, WZ, and YZ conceived of the study. YX, WZ, and YZ performed research. GL and YW analyzed data. XH and DH wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Education of Jiangxi Province (GJJ180228).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, China

    Xiaolong Hu & Yunlin Zheng

  2. College of forestry, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, China

    Yongtao Xu & Weiwei Zhang

  3. Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China

    Gang Liu

  4. School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China

    Defu Hu

  5. Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China

    Yihua Wang

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  1. Xiaolong Hu
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  2. Yongtao Xu
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  3. Gang Liu
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  4. Defu Hu
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  5. Yihua Wang
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  6. Weiwei Zhang
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  7. Yunlin Zheng
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Correspondence to Weiwei Zhang or Yunlin Zheng.

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All the experiments of this study were performed on the basis of guidelines of the Institution of Animal Care and the Ethics Committee of Jiangxi Agricultural University

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Hu, X., Xu, Y., Liu, G. et al. The impact of anthelmintic treatment on gut bacterial and fungal communities in diagnosed parasite-free sika deer Cervus nippon. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 104, 9239–9250 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-020-10838-y

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