permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] think piggy for good health
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 14:06:00 -0500
From: jcummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>

To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

The publication below  provides evidence for what all human crawlers
know. It is not only fun but healthy  as well to be small and  muddy.
BMC Biol. 2009 Nov 20;7:79.
Environmentally-acquired bacteria influence microbial diversity and
natural innate immune responses at gut surfaces.

Mulder IE, Schmidt B, Stokes CR, Lewis M, Bailey M, Aminov RI, Prosser
JI, Gill BP, Pluske JR, Mayer CD, Musk CC, Kelly D.

Gut Immunology Group, University of Aberdeen, Rowett Institute of
Nutrition and Health, Greenburn Road, Aberdeen AB21 9SB, UK.
D.Kelly@abdn.ac.uk.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Early microbial colonization of the gut reduces
the incidence of infectious, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
Recent population studies reveal that childhood hygiene is a significant
risk factor for development of inflammatory bowel disease, thereby
reinforcing the hygiene hypothesis and the potential importance of
microbial colonization during early life. The extent to which early-life
environment impacts on microbial diversity of the adult gut and
subsequent immune processes has not been comprehensively investigated
thus far. We addressed this important question using the pig as a model
to evaluate the impact of early-life environment on microbe/host gut
interactions during development. RESULTS: Genetically-related piglets
were housed in either indoor or outdoor environments or in experimental
isolators. Analysis of over 3,000 16S rRNA sequences revealed major
differences in mucosa-adherent microbial diversity in the ileum of adult
pigs attributable to differences in early-life environment. Pigs housed
in a natural outdoor environment showed a dominance of Firmicutes, in
particular Lactobacillus, whereas animals housed in a hygienic indoor
environment had reduced Lactobacillus and higher numbers of potentially
pathogenic phylotypes. Our analysis revealed a strong negative
correlation between the abundance of Firmicutes and pathogenic bacterial
populations in the gut. These differences were exaggerated in animals
housed in experimental isolators. Affymetrix microarray technology and
Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction revealed significant gut-specific
gene responses also related to early-life environment. Significantly,
indoor-housed pigs displayed increased expression of Type 1 interferon
genes, Major Histocompatibility Complex class I and several chemokines.
Gene Ontology and pathway analysis further confirmed these results.
CONCLUSION: Early-life environment significantly affects both microbial
composition of the adult gut and mucosal innate immune function. We
observed that a microbiota dominated by lactobacilli may function to
maintain mucosal immune homeostasis and limit pathogen colonization.