Authors : Zhijun Zhong, Yongjiu Luo, Yang Yang, Chengdong Wang, Xuehan Liu, Desheng Li, Tingmei He, Wuyang Gu, Fangyuan Wang, Zhiyao Zhou, Tianliang Tang, Shengquan Ai, Gangshi Li, Xiaoxiao Zhou, Xiaoyang Xu, Bingbing Xie, Zhihua Ren, Hemin Zhang, Suizhong Cao, Liuhong Shen, Hualin Fu and Guangneng Peng
Abstract: The diet conversion period (1-1.5 years) is a special time for the giant panda. During this period, giant pandas need to adapt from a high-protein diet to highly fibrous bamboo as their main food and form a special digestive system that will digest cellulose and hemicellulose. Previous studies have shown that diet alterations affect intestinal microbiota composition and host resistance. Intestinal microbiotas play a key role in the giant panda’s ability to digest highly fibrous bamboo. In this study, researchers constructed a 16S rRNA gene library from three giant pandas’ feces to investigate the diversity and structure of its bacterial population during the diet conversion period. Results showed that the diversity of intestinal bacteria during the earlier and later diet conversion periods is higher than at the middle diet conversion period. Intestinal floras within the giant panda gut were affiliated with the phyla Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Fusobacteria and uncultured bacterium. The phyla Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were the predominant bacteria throughout diet conversion although their proportions fluctuated. Within the phylum Firmicutes, the majority of bacteria were Clostridium, Streptococcus and Lactobacillus but while in the phylum Proteobacteria, the predominant bacteria were Escherichia and Acetobacter. This is the first study to monitor bacterial diversity in feces from captive giant pandas during the diet conversion period.
Zhijun Zhong, Yongjiu Luo, Yang Yang, Chengdong Wang, Xuehan Liu, Desheng Li, Tingmei He, Wuyang Gu, Fangyuan Wang, Zhiyao Zhou, Tianliang Tang, Shengquan Ai, Gangshi Li, Xiaoxiao Zhou, Xiaoyang Xu, Bingbing Xie, Zhihua Ren, Hemin Zhang, Suizhong Cao, Liuhong Shen, Hualin Fu and Guangneng Peng, 2013. Characterization of Bacterial Diversity in Captive Giant Panda Feces During the Diet Conversion Period. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 12: 1541-1549.