Researchers from the University of Guelph, in Ontario, set out to characterize the totality of microbes, known as the microbiome, in the faeces of healthy horses and compare it to the fecal microbiome of horses with lower bowel inflammation, known as colitis.
The intestinal tract is home to one of the richest and most complex microbial populations on the planet and plays a critical role in health and a wide range of diseases, the authors noted, adding that limited studies using new DNA sequencing technologies in horses were available.
A total of 195,748 sequences obtained from six healthy horses and 10 horses affected by typical cases of colitis were analyzed.
