Investigation of the Cyprus donkey milk bacterial diversity by 16SrDNA high-throughput sequencing in a Cyprus donkey farm

• Main Authors: Papademas, P, Kamilari, E, Aspri, M, Anagnostopoulos, D. A, Mousikos, P, Kamilaris, A, Tsaltas, D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 04-09-2020
• Subjects: Computer Science - Computers and Society; Quantitative Biology - Quantitative Methods
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2009.02156

The interest in milk originating from donkeys is growing worldwide due to its
claimed functional and nutritional properties, especially for sensitive
population groups, such as infants with cow milk protein allergy. The current
study aimed to assess the microbiological quality of donkey milk produced in a
donkey farm in Cyprus using cultured-based and high-throughput sequencing (HTS)
techniques. The culture-based microbiological analysis showed very low
microbial counts, while important food-borne pathogens were not detected in any
sample. In addition, HTS was applied to characterize the bacterial communities
of donkey milk samples. Donkey milk was mostly comprised of: Gram-negative
Proteobacteria, including Sphingomonas, Pseudomonas Mesorhizobium and
Acinetobacter; lactic acid bacteria, including Lactobacillus and Streptococcus;
the endospores forming Clostridium; and the environmental genera Flavobacterium
and Ralstonia, detected in lower relative abundances. The results of the study
support existing findings that donkey milk contains mostly Gram-negative
bacteria. Moreover, it raises questions regarding the contribution: a) of
antimicrobial agents (i.e. lysozyme, peptides) in shaping the microbial
communities and b) of the bacterial microbiota to the functional value of
donkey milk.