T
he porcine gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbiota
has been studied to increase production efficiency, improve product quality, and
help attempt to reduce disease. During t
he developmental period from birt
h t
hroug
h weaning, t
he intestinal microbiota undergoes a rapid ecological succession. T
here is interest in developing a monitoring tec
hnique t
hat allows for analysis of bacterial population levels and s
hifts wit
hin t
he pig intestine. T
he objective of t
his study was to determine if denaturant gradient gel electrop
horesis (DGGE) could be effectively applied to measure c
hanges in bacterial populations of t
he pig GIT, as influenced by age, diet or compartment. Bacterial genetic diversity was determined using DGGE analysis of t
he V3 region of 16S rDNA PCR products (
![](/images/glyp<font)
hs/BQ1.GIF>200 bp) obtained from primers specific for t
he domain
Bacteria. Protocol development included optimization of: DNA extraction procedures, PCR amplification, removal of PCR artifacts, and optimization of gel preparation and image capture. DGGE analysis revealed diverse bacterial populations between pigs of different ages and among individual gut compartments. Comparison of fecal DNA from different aged pigs revealed several unique PCR product bands indicating t
he presence of unique bacterial populations. Comparison of different gut compartments demonstrated t
hat bacterial populations were most similar (
Cs value >50 % ) wit
hin a single compartment and between adjacent ones. T
hus, DGGE can be used to examine bacterial diversity and population s
hifts in t
he pig GIT.