Understanding the Relationship Between the Tonsil Microbiota and Clinical Streptococcus Suis Infection in Nursery Pigs

The objective of this study was to determine if the tonsillar microbiota is different in nursery pigs with Streptococcus suis disease compared with that of healthy pigs. Fifty-six pigs from 9 farms were classified as confirmed cases, probable cases and healthy controls. Illumina MiSeq-sequencing of the 16S V3-V4 hypervariable region was done to assess the microbiota composition and the mothur pipeline was used for clustering and taxonomical assignment. Overall, 453, 600 and 334 different taxa were identified in confirmed cases, probable cases and controls, respectively. The beta diversity differed significantly between the farms (p=0.035). Alpha diversity differed between probable cases and control (p