LAUSR

Donkey milk has received increasing attention from consumers and dairy industry because of its nutritional value, health benefits, and proximity to human milk. Microbial diversity in donkey milk has a great impact on its quality and safety, however, microbiota in donkey milk from the major donkey-breeding regions of China have not been well documented. In this study, bacterial communities in donkey milk from Yopurga County in Western China (XJ), and Dong'e County in Eastern China (SD) were determined using high-throughput sequencing. Major phyla identified in the two donkey milk groups consistently included Acinetobacter, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes but with very different abundance for each phylum. Prevelence of genera was found to be diverse between the two groups, with Macrococcus and Acinetobacter dominating in the XJ samples while Streptococcus, Pseudoclavibacter, and Pseudomonas being the most abundant ones in the XJ samples. Alpha diversity analysis showed that there was significant difference in richness between the two sample groups but no difference in bacterial community diversity or coverage. The presence of possible harmful bacteria and lactic acid bacteria in donkey milk in this study provides the microbial profiles of pathogens and spoilage bacteria that need to be controlled and proposes possible utilization of beneficial microbial resources for the future.