The Intestinal Microflora of Hens as Influenced by Various Carbohydrates in a Biotin-deficient Ration

Abstract

The chicken is an animal of great economic importance and is widely used in the assay of certain vitamins, but little is known about its intestinal flora. The first study of the microbial flora of the chicken's intestinal tract was conducted by Kern (1897). His investigations embraced not only the chicken and other gallinaceous birds, but many of the common wild birds. Other work on the microflora of chickens has been reported by Rahner (1901), King (1905), Gage (1911), Menes and Rochlin (1929), and Emmel (1930). All of these workers agreed that Escherichia coli and Aerobacter aerogenes made up the greatest proportion of the intestinal flora. Other types of microorganisms commonly found in the chicken's intestines by these workers were lactobacilli, micrococci, pseudomonads, bacilli, sarcinae, clostridia (in two instances), and yeasts. Unfortunately, none of these studies was quantitative, and some were not too exact from a qualitative standpoint. The type of dietary carbohydrate has a marked effect on the intestinal flora of animals. Early studies on the subject are well reviewed by Rettger and Cheplin (1921), who presented further evidence concerning the influence of carbohydrate upon the intestinal microflora. Later studies have confirmed and enlarged upon these earlier reports (Evenson, 1947). From the standpoint of vitamin synthesis, the type of carbohydrate in the diet is an important factor. Elvehjem and Krehl (1947) have reviewed this subject, hence an account of specific reports on the role of carbohydrates upon intestinal biosynthesis of vitamins will be unnecessary. Elvehjem and Krehl state, "One might place the carbohydrates in the following decreasing order in their favorable effect on vitamin requirement: dextrin, starch, lactose, glucose, sucrose, although this varies with different vitamins." The work presented in this paper was carried out over a period of six months in connection with a nutritional investigation (Couch et al., 1948) that was performed to determine the effects of different carbohydrates upon the intestinal synthesis of biotin by chickens. The microbiological work had as its objective the determination of the influence of various carbohydrates upon the numbers and kinds of microorganisms in the intestinal tract.

The Intestinal Microflora of Poultry and Game Birds During Life and After Storage

“…There are many suggestionis that feeding whole grain (rather than crushed grain) for a few weeks is particularly beneficial to older birds-laying hens or turkey breeding flocks-but there is little evidence as to its effect on the intestinal flora. There are indications though from Johansson et al (1948) that the grain diet reduced the numbers of coli-aerogenes and other enterobacteria in the small intestine, and we obtained a similar result in the only experiment we have done (unpublished data) when we changed the diet of chickens for a few weeks, from a normal broiler ration, to one of crushed wheat plus a vitamin and mineral supplement.…”

Water intake and digestive metabolism of broilers fed all-vegetable diets containing acidulated soybean soapstock

“…Chickens, as opposed to ruminants and swine, do not have well-adapted structures for fermentative processes, which would allow fiber utilization. In adult birds, the caeca are the only structures with microorganisms and fatty acids (Annison et al, 1968;Johansson et al, 1948;McNab, 1973). However, no more than 25% of the total ingested feed enters the caeca (Son et al, 2002), which are located at the end of the digestive system, bearing, therefore, limitations in time and contact for efficient absorption of endproducts.…”

Bacterial Population Changes in the Ceca of Young Chickens Infected with Eimeria tenella

“…Two to four animals were picked at random just prior to infection and killed so that normal cecal samples could be obtained. The samples were prepared for bacterial study in the manner previously described for laying hens (Johansson et at., 1948). In the first experiment, only four types of cultures were prepared: carrot-liver extract ("CL") agar shake tubes (Garey et at., 1941), aerobic agar plates (Johansson et al, 1948), Difco eosin methylene blue agar plates ("EMB"), and Hajna and Perry's (1943) "SF" medium (dilution counts).…”

“…The samples were prepared for bacterial study in the manner previously described for laying hens (Johansson et at., 1948). In the first experiment, only four types of cultures were prepared: carrot-liver extract ("CL") agar shake tubes (Garey et at., 1941), aerobic agar plates (Johansson et al, 1948), Difco eosin methylene blue agar plates ("EMB"), and Hajna and Perry's (1943) "SF" medium (dilution counts). In the second experiment the following determinations were made: CL agar shake tube counts, aerobic agar plate counts on Baltimore Biological Laboratory's "fluid thioglycolate" medium with 1.3 per cent agar added, plate counts in the latter medium incubated anaerobically in an atmosphere of hydrogen, EMB agar plates, and total spore counts.…”

“…In the second experiment the following determinations were made: CL agar shake tube counts, aerobic agar plate counts on Baltimore Biological Laboratory's "fluid thioglycolate" medium with 1.3 per cent agar added, plate counts in the latter medium incubated anaerobically in an atmosphere of hydrogen, EMB agar plates, and total spore counts. Spore counts were made by heatshocking the initial 1: 100 dilution (after inoculations had been made in the other media) at 80 C for from 10 to 11 minutes and inoculating tap water dilutions of this material into the following media: typtone yeast extract glucose agar (Johansson et al, 1948) plates; "thioglycolate medium" (Baltimore Biological Laboratory) plates with 1.3 per cent added agar; and shake tubes of the latter medium. Thioglycolate agar plates were incubated anaerobically in hydrogen, and the other plates and tubes were incubated aerobically.…”