This study investigated the effect of sow vaccination against virulent strains of Glaesserella parasuis on the nasal microbiota of piglets. Nasal swabs were taken from piglets at 15 days old from sows that were vaccinated (vs-P) or unvaccinated controls (cs-P). 16S rRNA sequencing showed the vs-P piglets had lower G. parasuis levels and diversity in their microbiota. Analysis revealed differences in alpha and beta diversity between vs-P and cs-P piglets, with clear clustering by group. The vs-P piglets also had a less complex correlation network with fewer connections between microbial taxa. Vaccination of sows therefore altered the nasal microbiota composition

1. Study design
Poster #2558
Fri 10th, June
Sow vaccination against virulent strains of Glaesserella parasuis alters
the microbial network found in the nasal microbiota of the offspring
miguel.blanco@irta.ca
t
+34 934674040
Miguel Blanco-Fuertes, Sergi López-Serrano, Marina Sibila, Virginia Aragon and Florencia Correa-Fiz
.
IRTA, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA, IRTA UAB), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
vaccinated
sow
control
sow
• Glaesserella parasuis is the etiological agent of Glässer’s disease, a
common pathology in the pork industry
.
• Vaccination is one of the strategies to control the disease
.
• Objective: unravel the effect that sow vaccination against virulent
strains of G. parasuis had in the nasal microbiota of their offspring
.
1. Introduction 3. Results
2. Methods
vs-P cs-P
• Sampling of piglets at day 15
(nasal swabs).
4. Conclusion
• Vaccination of the sows against virulent G. parasuis had a large effect in the microbiota composition of their offspring that went beyond
the effect on the targeted pathogen, including lower diversity and different topology of the co-occurrence network.
This work was funded by Grant AGL2016-77361-R, BES-2017-082224, PID-2019106233RB-I00 from the MICINN, Spanish Government
• G. parasuis amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) relative
abundance was reduced, and some of the ASVs were eliminated
after vaccination
.
• Alpha and Beta diversity differed between vs-P and cs-P group.
Clear clustering by study groups was observed.
• Alpha and Beta diversity
.
• Differential abundance analysis
.
• Metagenome prediction &
pathway analysis
.
• Correlation Network Analysis
(CNA).
In silico analysis
Vaccination against surface-
exposed peptide from virulent
strains of G. parasuis, 32 and 12
days before farrowing.
Boxplot representing alpha diversity measured as Simpson index (A) and PCoA plot
representing the weighted Unifrac index of the nasal microbiota of piglets from vaccinated
(green) and control unvaccinated sows (orange) (B). Subnetwork representing the module with highly connected nodes of the co-occurrence network
from the nasal microbiota of piglets from control sows (cs-P). The nodes are colored based on the
location of these ASVs in the network of the nasal microbiota composition of piglets from vaccinated
sows (vs-P) modules. Yellow color highlights the most connected nodes in this module from the cs-P
network (6 nodes). Depicted nodes correspond to the four nodes that were absent in the vs-P
network.
x2 x2
n=11 n=11
• 16S rRNA
sequencing (V3-
V4) Illumina.
• CNA showed a different architecture of the networks from
cs-P and vs-P groups, with higher number of nodes
(corresponding to ASVs) and edges (positive correlations) in
the cs-P network
.
• The structure of the modules with most-connected nodes
within the cs-P network were not conserved in the vs-P
network.
All these results had beed published in Blanco-Fuertes, M. et al. Sow vaccination against virulent Glaesserella parasuis shapes the nasal microbiota of their offspring. Sci Rep 12, 3357 (2022).