Effect of pasture versus indoor feeding on milk microbiota of goats

Abstract

The microbial profile of milk can influence the quality of raw milk and milk products. To investigate whether the feeding styles of goats affected their milk microbiota profile, two local goat farms with different feeding styles (pasture and indoor feeding) were selected. Milk samples contained 10 colostrum samples (5 from pasture-raised goats and 5 from indoor-fed goats) and 12 mature milk samples (7 from pasture-raised goats and 5 from indoor-fed goats) were collected. 16S rDNA sequences of these samples were amplified and further subjected to alpha- and beta-diversity analysis, principal coordinates analysis (PCoA), linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis. The result showed that pasture-raised goats showed higher milk microbial abundance and diversity than indoor-fed goats. Specifically, Propionibacterium, Weeksellaceae, Lactobacillus, Cloacibacterium, and Yersinia were enriched in colostrum and Betaproteobacteria, Pseudomonadales, Moraxellaceae, Lactobacillales, Brevibacterium, Acinetobacter, Alcaligenaceae, Enhydrobacter, Brevundimonas, and Gluconacetobacter were enriched in mature milk of pasture-raised goats. In addition, the functional metabolic genes of the milk microbiota differed significantly in goats of these two farms. Altogether, the present study analyzed the microbiota of colostrum and mature milk of goats and suggested that feeding style could profoundly affect the composition of milk microbiota.

Keywords

• goat
• pasture
• indoor feeding
• feeding style
• milk microbiota