Garlic essential oil supplementation modulates colonic microbiota compositions and regulates immune response in weaned piglets.

The objective of this study was to investigate the colonic microbiome compositions and immune response and reveal their correlations in weaned piglets fed with garlic essential oil (GEO). Twelve 21-day-old crossbred piglets with the same parity and similar weight (BW = 7.07 ± 0.37 Kg) were randomly divided into control and experimental groups based on BW and sex, which fed either a basal diet (CON group), or a basal diet supplemented with 1.5 g/kg GEO (GEO group). UHPLC-QE-MS showed the main component of GEO were belonged to carbohydrates, organic acid, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids and terpenoids. GEO decreased serum IL-1β, IL-8 content and the down-regulated mRNA expression of , in jejunal mucosa but increased serum IgG, IL-4 content and up-regulated the mRNA expression of , , in ileal mucosa. What's more, the metagenomic analysis demonstrated that GEO increased the abundance of , and , while decreased the abundance of and at Phylum level and , , and at species level. Notably, the main function pathway of virulence factor (VFDB) enriched in GEO group were Fibronection-binding protein, Zn metallophrotease and Capsular polysaccharide, while the main function pathway of VFDB enriched in CON group were heme biosynthesis, Lap and FeoAB. Spearman correlation analysis indicated the had a positive association with IL-6 and IL-4. was positively correlated with IL-1β, while negative with the IL-6; In addition, had a positive correlation with IL-4, but a negative correlation with IL-1β; was negative with IL-8; and was negative with IL-6; was negative with TNF-α. While 108025 had a positive correlation with IL-8. In conclusion, our results uncovered that immune regulation effects of GEO may be associated with the microbiome compositions in response to GEO.