Defining faecal core bacterial community of Welsh Mountain ponies maintained in West of Scotland

摘要

Limited research is available on equine gut microbiome in health and disease. Pony breeds are often used in equine nutrition research due to lower maintenance costs; thus, it is important to understand whether ponies can be used as a model for horse microbiome studies. The results suggest that ponies have a more stable core microbiome, which may allow them to better tackle nutritional challenges.