Are you an Alberta horse owner? Is so, please consider contributing to our @ucalgaryvetmed study on parasite management practices in the province. The survey takes ~15-20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed here: survey.ucalgary.ca/jfe/form/SV_5a…

Looking for MSc students! I have three fully funded positions available in 2024 on: 1) soil invertebrates in agriculture (with @paulypod, based in his lab); 2) earthworm invasions in Nova Scotian forests; and 3) soil microbes/eDNA on Sable Island: erincameronlab.com/jointhelab

We just arrived on Sable Island for the Sable Island Horse Project 17th annual field season 😃

3 Sable Island bachelors (photo by Katie Moyes)

Does the gut microbiome explain variation in fitness in wildlife? Our decade-long effort to answer this question in @SI_horses suggests that it does. Out in Nature Communications today: nature.com/articles/s4146…

Mason Stothart @ruthjgee Alastair Wilson Philip D. McLoughlin Using shallow shotgun sequencing of ~2400 💩 samples collected from ~800 horses over 7 year, we found that gut microbiome taxonomic and functional profiles predict survival, and identified methanogenesis as the likely key proximate mechanism

What the wild horse microbiome can teach us about health and longevity | News | University of Calgary ucalgary.ca/news/what-wild…

New @ucalgaryvetmed study uncovers life-sustaining microbiome secrets in wild horses, with far-reaching implications for animal, human, agricultural and environmental health bit.ly/3LUrzs9 #UCalgary

Excited to have this paper out from my PhD! Just scratching the surface of this incredible Sable Island horse microbiome dataset. 🐎🦠

Proud to see this out from my PhD! The culmination of years of work + data collection by many people. Does gut microbiome variation matter in free-living wildlife? doi.org/10.1038/s41467… Sure seems to for survival in Sable Island Horse Project Why? We think it might be partly related to…

Wild horse survival rate linked to methane-producing gut bacteria dvm360.com/view/wild-hors…

New research at the University of Calgary has found a link between animal health and gut microbiome variations. We hear from a researcher on the project: calgary.ctvnews.ca/video/c2965593…

We lack study of natural selection acting on gut microbiome variation. Stothart et al. provide evidence that gut microbiome variation is associated with survival in a population of feral horses. Mason Stothart Jocelyn Poissant (mostly on 🦋) @ali_wilson @ruthjgee @SI_horses nature.com/articles/s4146…

Team Sable Island🐴 2024

Sable Island season 2 ✔️ Another field season in the books, the longest I’ve been in one place since February. Now I have a few days at home to finish packing, then it’s time to move to Saskatoon!

Sharing again for those who were on summer holiday when it came out: Gut microbiome variation predicts survival in feral horses Nature Communications nature.com/articles/s4146…

It’s official, we have migrated to 🦋. Hope to see you there! @sihorses.bsky.social

Mixed strongyle parasite infections vary across host age and space in a population of feral horses | Parasitology | Cambridge Core - bit.ly/49Q7wGt

🐎 #USask biology PhD student Victoria Crozier and undergraduate student Olivia Andres were two of three early-career researchers who wrote about their shared experience on the remote Sable Island. 🦭 Read their column in Nature: nature.com/articles/d4158…