Heat stress affects duodenal microbial community of indigenous yellow-feather broilers as determined by 16S rRNA sequencing

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of heat stress on microbial community in the duodenum of yellow-feather broiler chickens based on 16S rRNA sequencing. A total of 40 female Chinese indigenous yellow-feather broilers (56-day-old, average initial body weight of 840.75 ± 20.79 g) were randomly allocated to two groups, including the normal treatment group (NT group, 21.3 ± 1.2 C, 24 h/day) and the heat stress group (HS group, 32.5 ± 1.4 C, 10 h/day), and the relative humidity (RH) of both two groups was maintained at 65 ± 5%. The experiment conforms to a completely randomised trial design. Broilers in both of two groups were fed basal diet, each group consisted of five replicates, and four broilers in each replicate. The feeding trail lasted 4 weeks. The results showed that although the broilers in the HS group had lower abundance-based coverage estimators (ACE) and Chao1 richness estimator (Chao1) index of duodenal microbial, there were no significant differences in duodenal microbial alpha diversity index between NT and HS groups, including ACE, Chao1, Shannon and Simpson index (p > .05). Regarding the microbial composition and abundance, at the phylum level, heat stress exposure significantly decreased the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes in duodenum compared with NT group (p < .05). At the genus level, compared with the NT group, heat stress exposure significantly reduced the relative abundance of Cupriavidus, Leptothrix, Janthinobacterium, Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, Desulfovibrio, Oscillospira and Dorea in the duodenum (p < .05). In conclusion, heat stress affected the duodenal microbial community in indigenous yellow-feather broilers. HIGHLIGHTSHeat stress had adverse effects on duodenal microbial composition of Chinese indigenous yellow-feather broilers. Strategies that improve the duodenal microbial balance may promote the gut health and reduce the economic losses caused by heat stress in broiler production.

Global trends and research frontiers on heat stress in poultry from 2000 to 2021: A bibliometric analysis

“…To address this, studies have reported that co-enzyme q10 protects the chicken primary myocardial cells against damage and apoptosis during in vivo heat stress by upregulating hsp70 expression and HSF1 binding activity ( Xu et al, 2017a ; Xu et al, 2017b ; Xu et al, 2019b ), and that co-enzyme q10 induced autophagy and suppressed the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling as a protective mechanism against heat stress ( Xu et al, 2019a ). Alongside this, several studies have employed the whole transcriptomics approach, as well as other RNA sequencing technology to investigate the effects of heat stress in poultry ( Saelao et al, 2018 ; Te Pas et al, 2019 ; Kim et al, 2021 ; Liang et al, 2021 ). With the advent of this tool, the molecular mechanisms that occur in distinct cells or tissues of various poultry species during heat stress exposure can be profiled, quantified, and comprehensively understood, thus presenting useful information to advance research in this field.…”

Effect of heat stress on ileal microbial community of indigenous yellow‐feather broilers based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing

“…However, the high ambient temperature in southern China always causes HS in production of Huaixiang chickens, thus resulting in a decline in intestinal health, and ultimately negatively affects the productivity (Liu et al., 2019 ; Liu et al., 2021b , 2021a ). Because HS results in insufficient feed intake and intestinal physical barrier damage, so the balance of gut microbiota is easily disturbed by HS (Liang et al., 2021 ; Richards et al., 2010 ; Rostagno et al., 2020 ). The ileum is the mid‐hindgut in poultry which is an important site for digestion and nutrient absorption and has rich microorganisms (Shaufi et al., 2015 ).…”