Bacterial Profiles of Brain in Downer Cattle with Unknown Etiology

Abstract

Downer cow can be caused by muscular paralysis, neurological damage, metabolic disorder, and/or the complication of microbial infection. However, downer cow with unknown etiology is issued because of the non-detection of its bacterial etiological agent. In this study, differences in the bacterial community in brain tissues between downer cattle with unknown etiology and healthy slaughtered cattle are investigated. Bacterial diversity and representative genera between downer and normal cattle were significantly different (p p p < 0.05). This study revealed a significant difference in microbiota between the downer and normal cattle. Thus, we demonstrate that representative genera from downer cattle through 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and microbiota analysis have the potential as candidates for bacterial etiological agents for downer cow.

Keywords

• downer cow
• unknown etiology
• brain microbiota
• next-generation sequencing