Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38051704›Full record

ArticlePloS one2023

Characterising the gut microbiome of stranded harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) in rehabilitation.

Ana Rubio-Garcia, Aldert L Zomer, Ruoshui Guo, John W A Rossen, Jan H van Zeijl, Jaap A Wagenaar, Roosmarijn E C Luiken

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
0.8field-weighted citation impact, top 26% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Ana Rubio-GarciaVeterinary and Research Department, Sealcentre Pieterburen, Pieterburen, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0001-7385-8671
Aldert L ZomerDivision of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Utrecht University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Ruoshui GuoDivision of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Utrecht University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
John W A RossenDepartment of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-7167-8623
Jan H van ZeijlDepartment of Medical Microbiology Friesland and Noordoostpolder, Certe, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.
Jaap A WagenaarDivision of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Utrecht University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Roosmarijn E C LuikenDivision of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Utrecht University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Utrecht University · NLCerte · NLUniversity Medical Center Groningen · NL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Animal rehabilitation centres provide a unique opportunity to study the microbiome of wild animals because subjects will be handled for their treatment and can therefore be sampled longitudinally. However, rehabilitation may have unintended consequences on the animals' microbiome because of a less varied and suboptimal diet, possible medical treatment and exposure to a different environment and human handlers. Our study describes the gut microbiome of two large seal cohorts, 50 pups (0-30 days old at arrival) and 23 weaners (more than 60 days old at arrival) of stranded harbour seals admitted for rehabilitation at the Sealcentre Pieterburen in the Netherlands, and the effect of rehabilitation on it. Faecal samples were collected from all seals at arrival, two times during rehabilitation and before release. Only seals that did not receive antimicrobial treatment were included in the study. The average time in rehabilitation was 95 days for the pups and 63 days for the weaners. We observed that during rehabilitation, there was an increase in the relative abundance of some of the Campylobacterota spp and Actinobacteriota spp. The alpha diversity of the pups' microbiome increased significantly during their rehabilitation (p-value <0.05), while there were no significant changes in alpha diversity over time for weaners. We hypothesize that aging is the main reason for the observed changes in the pups' microbiome. At release, the sex of a seal pup was significantly associated with the microbiome's alpha (i.e., Shannon diversity was higher for male pups, p-value <0.001) and beta diversity (p-value 0.001). For weaners, variation in the microbiome composition (beta diversity) at release was partly explained by sex and age of the seal (p-values 0.002 and 0.003 respectively). We mainly observed variables known to change the gut microbiome composition (e.g., age and sex) and conclude that rehabilitation in itself had only minor effects on the gut microbiome of seal pups and seal weaners.

Indexed as

Gastrointestinal MicrobiomeMedicinePhocaAgingAnimalsAnimals, WildHumansMale

Identifiers

PMID38051704
PMCPMC10697512
OpenAlexW4389331750

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.