No abstract

BackgroundMicrobial communities in the gut are influenced and shaped by both an individual’s interactions with their environment and the interactions of their progenitors. In chickens, this includes the hatchery they originated from, as well as the environment in which the egg was laid. This study aimed to establish the extent to which the microbial communities of source hatcheries influenced the microbiome of broilers over time by placing birds from two separate source hatcheries (HA,HB) in to both a floor pen and battery cage system as three distinct populations HA, HB, and mixed population (MP). MP was made up of half HA individuals and half HB individuals. Samples of the midgut (defined as the area between the duodenal loop and Meckel’s diverticulum) and the ceca were taken at day 0, 5, and 14 for battery cage birds, and day 0,5,14, 16, 21, 28, and 48 for floor raised birds.ResultsBirds from HA and HB both displayed distinct microbial communities in day 0 samples and retained some of these characteristics through day 48. Furthermore MP samples seemed to be influenced more by the microbiome of the source hatchery that displayed a higher number of OTUs at day zero. More diverse day 0 microbiomes also seemed more resistant to larger shifts in community composition as time progressed. There is some indication that parental diet also shaped the microbiomes of the broiler chickens, with the genus Bacteroides appearing in HB (parent stock fed non-vegetarian diet) populations as early as day 5, MP day 14, and finally appearing in HA (parent stock feed vegetarian diet) at day 21.ConclusionsThe results suggest that there may be a net positive effect on the microbiome of a flock by placing birds with strong day 0 microbial communities in a mixed flock with those with weak or non-beneficial microbial communities.