Panda feces study provides insights into microbiome, reproductive troubles

Date: May 18, 2016

Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison

A stomachache can put a real damper on your love life -- especially if you're a giant panda.

One minute it's breeding season and you're happily dining on fresh bamboo leaves, the next you're left clutching your stomach while your gastrointestinal lining passes through your system. It exits your body as a thick, gooey, gelatinous mass.

This is exactly what seems to happen to captive giant pandas, and the researchers behind a new study published in Frontiers in Microbiology are beginning to suspect it may play a role in their struggles to reproduce.

"We think they are sloughing off the internal mucous membrane of their gastrointestinal tract and because of this, they get really sick, which coincides with gestation," says Garret Suen, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of bacteriology and co-author of the panda poop and feeding behavior study. "The pandas stop eating and they produce these painful, membranous fecal pellets."

No one quite understands why these gelatinous masses, called mucoids, happen but Suen and his co-authors believe bamboo may be a factor. Evolutionarily speaking, giant pandas are not built to eat a sole diet of bamboo. As bears, their digestive systems are designed to break down meat and small amounts of plant material, yet in the wild and in captivity these bears are exclusively herbivorous. The study suggests this may lead to digestive troubles that could negatively affect panda pregnancy. It motivated the researchers to take a closer look at the gut bacteria involved.

"Gastrointestinal diseases are a major cause of mortality in wild and captive pandas but scientists understand very little about their digestive process," says co-author Ashli Brown Johnson, state chemist and Mississippi State University associate professor of biochemistry, molecular biology, entomology and plant pathology. "By studying the microbial community in the panda's gastrointestinal tract, we gain a better understanding of panda nutrition, which could help improve the health and reproduction of the endangered species."

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