Comparative evaluation of lower respiratory tract microbiota in healthy and BRD-affected calves in Egypt.

The advent of next-generation sequencing technologies has uncovered the importance of commensal microbial populations in the lower respiratory tract (LRT) for mucosal health and their role in the development of bovine respiratory disease (BRD). In this study, we aimed to characterize and compare the LRT microbiota in healthy and BRD-affected calves in Egypt. After assessing clinical respiratory scores in both groups, post-mortem lung samples from the cranial lobes of six clinically healthy calves and six calves affected by BRD were collected following slaughter.