Revealing the difference of intestinal microbiota composition of cultured European eels (Anguilla anguilla) with different growth rates

Autochthonous probiotics were proposed to have a higher capacity to compete with resident pathogens and were also more prone to dominate and persist over other potentially pathogenic microbes. Therefore, the aim of this study was conducted to investigate the potential autochthonous microbiota by revealing the differences in the intestinal microbiota composition of European eels (Anguilla anguilla) with different growth rates. The differences of diversity, an abundance of the intestinal microbiota, and compositions of all the libraries were identified. Moreover, the composition of the intestinal microbiota of European eels was affected by the growth rates. The dominant phylum of the intestinal microbiota of fast growth eels was Fusobacteria, while Spirochaetes was the dominant phylum of the intestinal microbiota of slow growth and medium growth eels. Cetobacterium was identified as the predominant genera of the intestinal microbiota of fast growth eels; there was a significant difference in this genus between fast growth eels and slow growth eels. Although the relative abundances of Plesiomonas, Turicibacter, Nitrospira, and Lachnospiraceae bacterium NK4A136 group were also increased with the growth rates, only Cetobacterium seemed to have great potential as the probiotics to European eels.