PRJNA231552
Pig skin microbiota Metagenome
We investigated the effect of scabies on skin microbial communities in a porcine model. In a 21 week trial, 96 skin scrapings from 15 pigs were collected before and during infection and after acaricide treatment and analysed by pyrosequencing of bacteria 16S rDNA (V1-V3). We found significant changes in the epidermal microbiota, in particular a dramatic increase in Staphylococcus correlating with the onset of mite infestation, which persisted beyond treatment and healing. Furthermore, the staphylococci population shifted from the commensal S. hominis on the healthy skin prior to scabies mite challenge to S. chromogenes, which is increasingly recognized as being pathogenic, coinciding with scabies infection in pigs. In contrast, all animals in the scabies-free cohort remained relatively free of Staphylococcus throughout the trial. This is the first in vivo study directly monitoring scabies mite infection associated disruption of the healthy microbiota and supporting previous assumptions that scabies promotes the establishment of pathogens.