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9/28/2018 | 9:05 AM - 9:20 AM | The Significance of Coprophagy in Chicks of Japanese Rock Ptarmigan | Eccles Conference Center Auditorium

The Significance of Coprophagy in Chicks of Japanese Rock Ptarmigan

We observed the coprophagy of chicks of Japanese rock ptarmigan Lagopus muta japonica toward the cecal feces of their mother. Coprophagy in various species is regarded as the particular behavior to reuse the residual nutrients in feces. However, infants of herbivorous mammals such as Koala Phascolarctos cinereus, feed feces of their mother to intake bacteria to establish the essential intestinal microbiome. Ptarmigans, which are the almost complete herbivorous, have a dense bacterial population in the ceca. The chicks must construct adult-type cecal microbiome from early stage of life since Japanese rock ptarmigans start to eat alpine plants just after hatch. However, there is no studies on the significance of coprophagy in birds because coprophagy in chick of birds is very rare. In this study, we compared the developmental process of cecal microbiome of Japanese rock ptarmigans between captive individuals (without feeding of mother’s feces under daily tetracycline dose) and individuals protected in wild cage (with feeding of mother’s feces) by 16S rRNA deep sequencing with the NGS approach. Wild chicks feed mother’s cecal feces from 3 days old until 18 days old. It was revealed that wild chicks developed more complex cecal microbiome than captive chicks as fast as at 1 week old. Composition of major OTUs (Operational taxonomic units) between 1 week old chicks and their mothers has become similar in wild chicks, but not in captive chicks. Finally, we discuss the significance of coprophagy in wild Japanese rock ptarmigan and application to ex-situ conservation of this sub-species.

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Presenters/Authors

Atsushi Kobayashi (), Toho University, a.kobayashi0820@gmail.com;