The Metabolically Active Bacterial Microbiome of Tonsils and Mandibular Lymph Nodes of Slaughter Pigs

The exploration of microbiomes in lymphatic organs is relevant for basic and applied research into explaining microbial translocation processes and understanding cross-contamination during slaughter. This study aimed to investigate whether metabolically active bacteria (MAB) could be detected within tonsils and mandibular lymph nodes (MLNs) of pigs. The hypervariable V1-V2 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA genes was amplified from cDNA from tonsils and MLNs of eight clinically healthy slaughter pigs. Pyrosequencing yielded 82,857 quality-controlled sequences, clustering into 576 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), which were assigned to 230 genera and 16 phyla. The actual number of detected OTUs per sample varied highly (23-171 OTUs). Prevotella zoogleoformans and Serratia proteamaculans (best type strain hits) were most abundant (10.6 and 41.8%, respectively) in tonsils and MLNs, respectively. To explore bacterial correlation patterns between samples of each tissue, pairwise Spearman correlations (r s) were calculated. In total, 194 strong positive and negative correlations |r s| ≥ 0.6 were found. We conclude that (i) lymphatic organs harbor a high diversity of MAB, (ii) the occurrence of viable bacteria in lymph nodes is not restricted to pathological processes and (iii) lymphatic tissues may serve as a contamination source in pig slaughterhouses. This study confirms the necessity of the EFSA regulation with regard to a meat inspection based on visual examinations to foster a minimization of microbial contamination.