Characterization of vaginal microbiota of endometritis and healthy sows using high-throughput pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene

- Vaginal microbial community of healthy sows were evaluated.
- Vaginal microbial community of endometritis sows were evaluated.
- The difference of vaginal microbial community between healthy sows and endometritis sows were demonstrated.

Endometritis is one of major challenges in reproduction infections caused by bacteria in sows. Understanding of the vaginal bacterial community between endometritis and healthy sows serves as a critical step to develop more effective ways to improve reproduction ability in pig industry. The aim of the present study is to evaluate and compare the vaginal microbiota of endometritis and healthy sows using high-throughput pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene. The main bacterium found at the phylum level were Firmicutes (60.88% vs. 45.86%), Proteobacteria (20.45% vs. 32.19%) and Bacteroidetes (9.19% vs. 12.99%) for healthy and endometritis sows, respectively. Most notable difference at the phylum level was the Proteobacteria which occupied high abundance in the endometritis sows but less abundance in the healthy sows. At the genus level, the highest abundant were Bacillus (27.13% vs. 16.15%), Paenibacillus (14.78% vs. 8.92%), Alkaliphilus (3.99% vs. 2.87%) and Cronobacter (4.04% vs. 2.37%), in healthy and endometritis sows, respectively. Notable differences were Escherichia-Shigella, Bacteroides, Fusobacterium and Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 which were more abundant in the endometritis than the healthy sows respectively. The present results for the first time demonstrate vaginal microbial community of sows and indicate that endometritis affected the vaginal microbiota of sow.