Bacterial breath & skin microbiomes of managed & free-ranging killer whales in western North America
Breath &amp; skin samples from managed &amp; free-ranging resident &amp; transient killer whales in western North America were analyzed for bacterial microbiomes by sequencing 16S microbial amplicons. Objectives were to 1) characterize the bacterial &amp; archaeal communities from those samples; 2) identify shared microbial taxa for breath and for skin; and assess community patterns for usefulness in individual animal health assessments.