Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota , Saint Paul, MN , USA.
Department of Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, MN , USA.
Front Vet Sci. 2015 Nov 20;2:56. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2015.00056. eCollection 2015.
Gut health is paramount for commercial poultry production, and improved methods to assess gut health are critically needed to better understand how the avian gastrointestinal tract matures over time. One important aspect of gut health is the totality of bacterial populations inhabiting different sites of the avian gastrointestinal tract, and associations of these populations with the poultry farm environment, since these bacteria are thought to drive metabolism and prime the developing host immune system. In this study, a single flock of commercial turkeys was followed over the course of 12 weeks to examine bacterial microbiome inhabiting the ceca, ileum, and corresponding poultry litter. Furthermore, the effects of low-dose, growth-promoting penicillin treatment (50 g/ton) in feed on the ileum bacterial microbiome were also examined during the early brood period. The cecum and ileum bacterial communities of turkeys were distinct, yet shifted in parallel to one another over time during bird maturation. Corresponding poultry litter was also distinct yet more closely represented the ileal bacterial populations than cecal bacterial populations, and also changed parallel to ileum bacterial populations over time. Penicillin applied at low dose in feed significantly enhanced early weight gain in commercial poults, and this correlated with predictable shifts in the ileum bacterial populations in control versus treatment groups. Overall, this study identified the dynamics of the turkey gastrointestinal microbiome during development, correlations between bacterial populations in the gastrointestinal tract and the litter environment, and the impact of low-dose penicillin on modulation of bacterial communities in the ileum. Such modulations provide a target for alternatives to low-dose antibiotics.
肠道健康对商业家禽生产至关重要，因此迫切需要改进方法来评估肠道健康，以更好地了解禽类胃肠道随时间的成熟过程。肠道健康的一个重要方面是栖息在禽类胃肠道不同部位的细菌种群的总和，以及这些种群与家禽养殖场环境的关联，因为这些细菌被认为可以驱动新陈代谢并启动宿主的免疫系统发育。在这项研究中，对一个商业火鸡群体进行了为期 12 周的跟踪研究，以检查栖息在盲肠、回肠和相应禽舍粪便中的细菌微生物组。此外，还研究了在早期育雏期间，低剂量促生长青霉素（50g/吨）在饲料中的作用对回肠细菌微生物组的影响。火鸡的盲肠和回肠细菌群落是不同的，但随着鸟类成熟过程中的时间推移而平行变化。相应的禽舍粪便也不同，但比盲肠细菌群落更接近回肠细菌群落，并且随着时间的推移也与回肠细菌群落平行变化。低剂量青霉素在饲料中的应用显著提高了商业雏鸡的早期增重，这与对照组和治疗组回肠细菌种群的可预测变化相关。总体而言，这项研究确定了火鸡胃肠道微生物组在发育过程中的动态变化，以及胃肠道和粪便环境中细菌种群之间的相关性，以及低剂量青霉素对回肠细菌群落的调节作用。这种调节为替代低剂量抗生素提供了一个目标。
