Differences in Intestinal Flora and Its Related Metabolite Between Healthy and Diarrheal Piglets: Strategies for Innovative Bacterial Diarrhea Prevention

The prevalence of piglet diarrhea poses a significant challenge to the development of pig farming, with disruptions in the intestinal flora recognized as a primary contributing factor. A comprehensive understanding of the intestinal flora composition in piglets is crucial for developing effective preventive strategies to reduce the incidence of diarrhea. In this study, we employed high-throughput sequencing and untargeted metabolomics via liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to investigate the differences in intestinal flora and their metabolites between healthy and diarrheal piglets. In this study, we found that Lactobacillus and Enterococcus were the predominant bacterial genera in healthy piglets. Amino acids, bioactive sesquiterpenoids, and triterpenoids were highly expressed in the intestines of healthy piglets. The association analysis between the microbiota and metabolites indicated that these metabolites showed a significant positive correlation with Lactobacillus and Enterococcus. Those results imply that Lactobacillus and Enterococcus might exert the functions of maintaining intestinal health and preventing diarrhea in piglets through these metabolites.