Associations between phenotypic characteristics and clinical parameters of broilers and intestinal microbial development throughout a production cycle: A field study

Kers, Jannigje G.; Oliveira, J. E. de; Fischer, E.A.J.; Tersteeg-Zijderveld, Monique H.G.; Konstanti, Prokopis; Stegeman, Jan Arend; Smidt, Hauke; Velkers, Francisca C.

doi:10.1002/mbo3.1114

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…The maturation of the microbiota which is defined as the age at which microbial community matures and does not change over time has been shown to vary between studies. In a study in commercial broiler farms, Kers et al (2020) found that cecum phylogenetic diversity stabilized after 21 d of chicken age. However, a study by Lu et al (2003) found that microbial communities in the cecum were similar at d 14 and 28 and different compared to d 49 suggesting that the microbiota stabilized after 28 d of chicken age under experimental conditions.…”

Section: The Microbiota Of the Chicken Intestinal Tractmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the beginning of the production cycle, on d 0, the family Clostridiaceae was dominant in cecal contents in broilers ( Kers et al, 2019a ; Kers et al, 2020 ). Lu et al (2003) showed that at 3 d of age Lactobacillus represented 25% of the total bacteria in the cecal contents.…”

Section: The Microbiota Of the Chicken Intestinal Tractmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In humans, Falony et al (2016) described that over 500 samples per group are required to accurately identify microbial shifts and sample sizes of 100 individuals per group are considered relatively small. In contrast, chicken microbiota studies have often less than 10 samples per treatment at each time point ( Kers et al, 2020 ). Appropriate sample sizes should be calculated considering a high population variance and weak treatment effect sizes to exclude bias in the results ( Bharti and Grimm, 2021 ).…”

Section: The Microbiota Of the Chicken Intestinal Tractmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Centennial Review: Factors affecting the chicken gastrointestinal microbial composition and their association with gut health and productive performance

Bindari

Gerber

2022

Poultry Science

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Maintenance of “gut health” is considered a priority in commercial chicken farms, although a precise definition of what constitutes gut health and how to evaluate it is still lacking. In research settings, monitoring of gut microbiota has gained great attention as shifts in microbial community composition have been associated with gut health and productive performance. However, microbial signatures associated with productivity remain elusive because of the high variability of the microbiota of individual birds resulting in multiple and sometimes contradictory profiles associated with poor or high performance. The high costs associated with the testing and the need for the terminal sampling of a large number of birds for the collection of gut contents also make this tool of limited use in commercial settings. This review highlights the existing literature on the chicken digestive system and associated microbiota; factors affecting the gut microbiota and emergence of the major chicken enteric diseases coccidiosis and necrotic enteritis; methods to evaluate gut health and their association with performance; main issues in investigating chicken microbial populations; and the relationship of microbial profiles and production outcomes. Emphasis is given to emerging noninvasive and easy-to-collect sampling methods that could be used to monitor gut health and microbiological changes in commercial flocks.

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Section: The Microbiota Of the Chicken Intestinal Tractmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Microbiota Of the Chicken Intestinal Tractmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Microbiota Of the Chicken Intestinal Tractmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Centennial Review: Factors affecting the chicken gastrointestinal microbial composition and their association with gut health and productive performance

Bindari

Gerber

2022

Poultry Science

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“…Microbial communities exhibit complex, non-linear temporal dynamics, especially during host development ( Jurburg et al, 2019 ; Kers et al, 2020 ). Understanding how the hosts’ microbiota respond to environmental fluctuations requires temporal monitoring in order to detect changes in the microbial community over time, following exposure to new conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Dynamics of Cloacal Microbiota in Adult Laying Chickens With and Without Access to an Outdoor Range

et al. 2021

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Associations between animal health and performance, and the host’s microbiota have been recently established. In poultry, changes in the intestinal microbiota have been linked to housing conditions and host development, but how the intestinal microbiota respond to environmental changes under farm conditions is less well understood. To gain insight into the microbial responses following a change in the host’s immediate environment, we monitored four indoor flocks of adult laying chickens three times over 16 weeks, during which two flocks were given access to an outdoor range, and two were kept indoors. To assess changes in the chickens’ microbiota over time, we collected cloacal swabs of 10 hens per flock and performed 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The poultry house (i.e., the stable in which flocks were housed) and sampling time explained 9.2 and 4.4% of the variation in the microbial community composition of the flocks, respectively. Remarkably, access to an outdoor range had no detectable effect on microbial community composition, the variability of microbiota among chickens of the same flock, or microbiota richness, but the microbiota of outdoor flocks became more even over time. Fluctuations in the composition of the microbiota over time within each poultry house were mainly driven by turnover in rare, rather than dominant, taxa and were unique for each flock. We identified 16 amplicon sequence variants that were differentially abundant over time between indoor and outdoor housed chickens, however none were consistently higher or lower across all chickens of one housing type over time. Our study shows that cloacal microbiota community composition in adult layers is stable following a sudden change in environment, and that temporal fluctuations are unique to each flock. By exploring microbiota of adult poultry flocks within commercial settings, our study sheds light on how the chickens’ immediate environment affects the microbiota composition.

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“…It has been shown that Enterobacteriaceae can be acquired before hatch from the oviduct of the hen or from the environment through pores in the eggshell [ 12 , 50 ]. The presence of Clostridiaceae, a family of obligate anaerobes, is more questionable, however it has been shown that the source of Clostridiaceae is usually environmental [ 51 ] and that not all Clostridiaceae are true obligate anaerobes [ 52 ]. Moreover, presence of Clostridiaceae in one day old turkeys has been shown previously [ 53 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delayed access to feed early post-hatch affects the development and maturation of gastrointestinal tract microbiota in broiler chickens

et al. 2022

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Background The first two weeks of post-hatch (PH) growth in broilers (meat-type birds) are critical for gut development and microbiota colonization. In the current broiler production system, chicks may not receive feed and water for 24 to 72 h due to variations in hatching time and hatchery management. Post-hatch feed delay affects body weight, feed efficiency, mortality, and gut development. The goal of this study was to investigate changes in the microbiome in broiler chickens early PH and the effect of delayed access to feed on the microbiota. Results Chicks either received feed and water immediately after hatch or access to feed was delayed for 48 h to mimic commercial hatchery settings (treatment, TRT). Both groups were sampled (n = 6) at -48, 0, 4 h, and 1 (24 h), 2 (48 h), 3 (72 h), 4 (96 h), 6 (144 h), 8 (192 h), 10 (240 h), 12 (288 h) and 14 (336 h) days PH. Ileal (IL) and cecal (CE) epithelial scrapings (mucosal bacteria, M) and digesta (luminal bacteria, L) were collected for microbiota analysis. Microbiota was determined by sequencing the V3-V4 region of bacterial 16S rRNA and analyzed using QIIME2. The microbiota of early ileal and cecal samples were characterized by high abundance of unclassified bacteria. Among four bacterial populations (IL-L, IL-M, CE-L, CE-M), IL-M was the least affected by delayed access to feed early PH. Both alpha and beta diversities were affected by delayed access to feed PH in IL-L, CE-M and CE-L. However, the development effect was more pronounced. In all four bacterial populations, significant changes due to developmental effect (time relative to hatch) was observed in taxonomic composition, with transient changes of bacterial taxa during the first two weeks PH. Delayed access to feed has limited influence on bacterial composition with only a few genera and species affected in all four bacterial populations. Predicted function based on 16S rRNA was also affected by delayed access to feed PH with most changes in metabolic pathway richness observed in IL-L, CE-L and CE-M. Conclusions These results show transient changes in chicken microbiota biodiversity during the first two weeks PH and indicate that delayed access to feed affects microbiota development. Proper microbiota development could be an important factor in disease prevention and antibiotic use in broiler chickens. Moreover, significant differences in response to delayed access to feed PH between luminal and mucosal bacterial populations strongly suggests the need for separate analysis of these two populations.

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Associations between phenotypic characteristics and clinical parameters of broilers and intestinal microbial development throughout a production cycle: A field study

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 9 publications

References 58 publications

Centennial Review: Factors affecting the chicken gastrointestinal microbial composition and their association with gut health and productive performance

Centennial Review: Factors affecting the chicken gastrointestinal microbial composition and their association with gut health and productive performance

Temporal Dynamics of Cloacal Microbiota in Adult Laying Chickens With and Without Access to an Outdoor Range

Delayed access to feed early post-hatch affects the development and maturation of gastrointestinal tract microbiota in broiler chickens

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