Exploring the association between microbiota and behaviour in suckling piglets.It is increasingly recognised that the microbes residing in the gastrointestinal tract can influence brain physiology and behaviour, via the microbiota-gut-brain axis.  Here, we made a first explorative evaluation at the association between the gut microbiota and behaviour in suckling piglets.  16S microbiota profiling information was obtained from two independent replicate experiments at 2 and 4 weeks of age.  Piglets underwent a backtest to assess their personality or coping style at 2 weeks of age, and were subjected to a combined open field and novel object test at 3.5 weeks of age, recording anxiety-related and exploratory behaviour.  The number of squeals vocalised during the open field test was associated with microbial groups such as Coprococcus 3 and CAG-873, whereas in the novel object test, explorative behaviour was significantly associated with microbial genera like Atopobium and Prevotella.  Overall, this study explores the microbiota-behavioural relation by employing multivariate analysis and exemplifies the importance of individualised analyses when evaluating such relationships.
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