Effect of cecal microbiota transplantation between different broiler breeds on the chick flora in the first week of life

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The cecal microbiota plays numerous roles in chicken health and nutrition. Where such microbiota differs between lines exhibiting distinct phenotypes, microbiota transplantation offers scope to dissect the role of gut microbial communities in those traits. However, the composition and stability of transplants over time is relatively ill-defined and varying levels of success have been reported. In this study, we transplanted cecal contents from adult Roslin broilers into chicks from a different broiler line. Within 0.1% abundant (average) in the donor sample, 137 were detected in the treated group (75 were >0.1% abundant (average)) while only 88 were detected in the control group (29 were >0.1% abundant (average)). Our data therefore suggests that stable transplantation of the cecal microbiota between lines is achievable using the methods described in this paper.

Keywords

• microbiota
• broiler
• caecum
• transplant
• 16S rRNA gene