Comparison of the Gut Microbiota in the Tibetan Wild Ass (Equus kiang ) Collected from High and Low Altitude

The gut microbiota plays an important role in animal performance and the environment. We collected fresh feces of the Tibetan wild ass (Equus kiang) from the Jinan Wildlife World and Qinghai - Tibet Plateau Wild Animal Park. And we divide the sample into Group A (the low altitude area) and Group B (the high altitude area). we studied the basic structure of the gut microbiota by sequencing high throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 hypervariable regions. The differences of gut microbiota in the Tibetan wild ass at different altitudes were compared. We obtained 1474595 16S rRNA gene sequences. The study observed 163genera belonging to 19 phyla in Group A while 210 genera belonging to 19 phyla in Group B with Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes predominating. Additionally, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes linearly decreased (P < 0.05) in Group A and linearly increased (P < 0.05) in Group B. The Ruminococcus_ flavefaciens, rumen_bacterium_YS2, Acinetobacter_baumannii and Bacillus_anthracis were only found in Group B. All the evidence showed that altitude has a marked impact on the composition of intestinal microflora in the Tibetan wild ass.