Declarations
Funding: Funding was supported by the NSERC CREATE grant, ReNewZoo and Conversation Genetics Laboratory of the University of Liège
Conflict of interest: All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
Data availability: Supporting information has been made available online. Pooled 16S rRNA sequences available on NCBI accession number: SUB9956843. ASV table, taxonomy table and mapping file have been uploaded, as well as MHC-1, MHC-2 and microsatellite data: Dryad link XXXX, see reference list.
Authors’ contributions: J.M., A.S.H. and P.V.L. planned and designed the study. P.V.L. with the help of C.F.-C., P.F., C.A. and L.B. performed the sample preparation for sequencing. J.M. provided sequencing services and together with A.S.H. advised on laboratory and sampling procedures. P.V.L. performed bioinformatics, statistical analyses and the interpretation of results with feedbacks provided by A.S.H. and J.M.. P.V.L. wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.
Acknowledgments : FIEB (Ciprian Petrescu), Madis Podra, OFB (Christelle Bellanger, Maylis Fayet), Zoodyssée (Mathilde Picard, Suzon Berton, Guillaume Romano), Lise Marie Pigneur, Alice Mouton, Adrien André, EEP program for the European mink, Tiit Maran and the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Spain).