Comparison of fecal microbiome of diarrheic and non-diarrheic calves revealed unique community structure of the calf intestine through metagenomics approach

We endeavored to use modern metagenomic approaches to investigate the bacterial community structuresassociated with diarrhea in young calves older than six months. After 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, diversity analyses were carried out to compare the microbial composition of feces from diarrheal calves to that of healthy calves. Here, we observed significantly less bacterial richness in the non-diarrheic calve's feces than in the diarrheic calve's feces. Comparing the gut microbiomes of calves with and without diarrhea, we revealed significant differences in microbial community composition.