Analysis of the intestinal microbial community in healthy and diarrheal perinatal yaks by high-throughput sequencing

Diarrhea, the most common disease of perinatal yaks greatly affects the growth of animals. Changes in the number and structure of intestinal flora can cause the disorder of the intestinal environment leading to diarrhea. A study was conducted to investigate the impact of diarrhea on the number and structure of intestinal flora in perinatal yaks. Fecal samples were collected from healthy and diarrhea-affected perinatal yaks; and changes in number and structure of intestinal flora were compared by 16S rDNA V3-V4 region high-throughput sequencing. A total of 272071 optimized sequences were acquired from bacteria, which were identified from 9 phyla, 13 classes, 17 orders, 36 families and 72 genera. The number of bacterial species among diarrheac intestinal flora was lower than the healthy group, with no significant difference between two groups (P > 0.05); however, significant differences were observed at phylum, class, order, family and genus level between two groups (P < 0.05). This study has provided for the first time an insight of the changes occurring in intestinal flora in perinatal yaks at high altitudes of the world.