Metagenomic insights into the global wild boar faecal microbiome reveal novel taxa and carbohydrate degraders distinguishing wild and domesticated Sus.
Heng YC, Chua JHX, Silvaraju S, Fan H, Low A
Summary
PubMedWhy it matters This matters because the plant fibers in crops like wheat bran, oat hulls, and vegetable scraps could become far more valuable livestock feed if these newly discovered gut bacteria are developed into probiotics — reducing agricultural waste and making food production more sustainable.
Wild boars eat a wide variety of plants and roots as they roam, and their gut is packed with bacteria specially adapted to breaking down tough plant material. Scientists collected gut samples from wild boars in four countries and discovered hundreds of previously unknown bacteria that are really good at digesting fiber. The big surprise was that it's what an animal eats — not whether it's wild or domestic — that determines which bacteria live in its gut.
chevron_right Technical Details
Researchers mapped the gut bacteria of wild boars across four countries and found that diet and lifestyle — not species — determine the makeup of the pig gut microbiome. They also discovered 538 previously unknown microbial species capable of breaking down plant fibers, offering potential tools to improve fiber digestion in farmed pigs.
Key Findings
Researchers assembled 3,288 high-quality microbial genomes representing 968 distinct species, of which 538 (55%) were previously unknown to science.
Gut microbiome composition was determined by diet and lifestyle rather than host species, splitting into two community types: C1 (81% wild/foraging animals) and C2 (93% captive/fed domestic pigs).
Wild boars (C1) showed lower microbial diversity despite their varied plant-rich diet, suggesting that unpredictable food availability favors fewer highly adaptable bacterial species over a rich community.
Abstract Preview
The inclusion of fibre in domestic pig diets is favourable from a digestive health, environmental, and socio-economic perspective. Unlike the highly optimized formulated diets of domestic pigs, wil...
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