Food research company NIZO, together with five partners, has characterised the faecal microbiota of breastfed infants and formula-fed infants at 17 time points during the first 12 weeks of life.
The frequent sampling and the use of different molecular technologies gave a very detailed description of the development of the microbiota during life’s early stages.
Microbiota development of breastfed compared to formula-fed infants proceeds according to similar developmental stages, but abundance of skin and breast milk associated microbes were increased in the gut microbiome of breastfed infants compared to formula-fed infants. The scientific report of this study was recently published.
