High-resolution study of fecal microbiome in Thai captive elephants towards nutrition management and welfare improvement

Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) have been known as a national symbol of Thailand and linked to Thai history and culture for centuries.The elephant welfare improvement is one of the major components to achieve sustainable captive management.Relationships between diet intake, nutrition and animal health will provide insight into effectiveness of welfare practice and rehabilitation therapy. Microbiome inhabiting in digestive tracts have been shown with symbiotic relation to host health helping in dietary digestion, stimulating immunes and protecting pathogens colonization. Understanding host associated microbiome provides a great opportunity to improve and monitor host health.To our knowledge, there is no systematic investigation of microbiome in Thai elephants. In this project, we aim to provide a high-resolution study of microbiome in Thai captive elephants by utilizing full-length 16S rRNA gene nanopore sequencing. Fecal microbiome from baby and adult elephants will be collected from different parts of Thailand along with feed diets. These microbiome data will be a baseline of healthy Thai captive elephants, which could be applied for elephant welfare assessment leading a guideline for feeding selection and the improvement of the captive elephant health and prevention of diseases.