Possibilities and limits for using the gut microbiome to improve captive animal health

Table 3 Papers comparing gut microbiota before and after experimental transplantation from captivity to the wild

	Author	Year	Citation	Sample type	Species	Difference in captive/wild microbial diversity?	Difference in captive/wild microbial composition?	Functional implications discussed?
Mammals	Bar et al.	2020	[49]	Fecal	House mouse	Lower in captivity	Y	Discussed (immune function)
	Chong et al.	2019	[50]	Fecal	Tasmanian devil	Lower in captivity	Y	Discussed (metabolic function)
	Leeuwen et al.	2020	[51]	Fecal	Deer mouse	No difference	Y	Discussed (neurological function)
	Schmidt et al.	2019	[146]	Fecal	Deer mouse	Lower in captivity	Y	Discussed (metabolic function)
	Yao et al.	2019	[75]	Fecal	Giant panda	Lower in captivity	Y	Assessed (functional metagenomics)

Included is whether the paper reported an increase or decrease in microbial diversity and microbial composition, as well as whether functional implications of these differences were discussed or assessed. Papers were found with a directed review of existing literature including a Google Scholar search and consulting references cited in each paper collected. We retained only those studies which include a captive population released into the wild within a single lifetime

ISSN: 2524-4671