PLoS ONE (Jan 2019)

Contact with adult hen affects development of caecal microbiota in newly hatched chicks.

  • Tereza Kubasova,
  • Miloslava Kollarcikova,
  • Magdalena Crhanova,
  • Daniela Karasova,
  • Darina Cejkova,
  • Alena Sebkova,
  • Jitka Matiasovicova,
  • Marcela Faldynova,
  • Alexandra Pokorna,
  • Alois Cizek,
  • Ivan Rychlik

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212446
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 3
p. e0212446

Abstract

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Chickens in commercial production are hatched in a clean hatchery environment in the absence of any contact with adult hens. However, Gallus gallus evolved to be hatched in a nest in contact with an adult hen which may act as a donor of gut microbiota. In this study, we therefore addressed the issue of microbiota development in newly hatched chickens with or without contact with an adult hen. We found that a mere 24-hour-long contact between a hen and newly hatched chickens was long enough for transfer of hen gut microbiota to chickens. Hens were efficient donors of Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria. However, except for genus Faecalibacterium and bacterial species belonging to class Negativicutes, hens did not act as an important source of Gram-positive Firmicutes. Though common to the chicken intestinal tract, Lactobacilli and isolates from families Erysipelotrichaceae, Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae therefore originated from environmental sources instead of from the hens. These observation may have considerable consequences for the evidence-based design of the new generation of probiotics for poultry.