Research Centre for Livestock Environmental Control and Smart Production, College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
Research Centre for Livestock Environmental Control and Smart Production, College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; Animal Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Centre, Dokki, Giza 12618, Egypt.
Poult Sci. 2023 Sep;102(9):102884. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2023.102884. Epub 2023 Jun 19.
Respiratory health problems in poultry production are frequent and knotty and thus attract the attention of farmers and researchers. The breakthrough of gene sequencing technology has revealed that healthy lungs harbor rich microbiota, whose succession and homeostasis are closely related to lung health status, suggesting a new idea to explore the mechanism of lung injury in broilers with pulmonary microbiota as the entry point. This study aimed to investigate the succession of pulmonary microbiota in healthy broilers during the growth cycle. Fixed and molecular samples were collected from the lungs of healthy broilers at 1, 3, 14, 21, 28, and 42 d of age. Lung tissue morphology was observed by hematoxylin and eosin staining, and the changes in the composition and diversity of pulmonary microbiota were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed that lung index peaked at 3 d, then decreased with age. No significant change was observed in the α diversity of pulmonary microbiota, while the β diversity changed regularly with age during the broilers' growth cycle. The relative abundance of dominant bacteria of Firmicutes and their subordinate Lactobacillus increased with age, while the abundance of Proteobacteria decreased with age. The correlation analysis between the abundance of differential bacteria and predicted function showed that dominant bacteria of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Lactobacillus were significantly correlated with most functional abundance, indicating that they may involve in lung functional development and physiological activities of broilers. Collectively, these findings suggest that the lung has been colonized with abundant microbiota in broilers when they were just hatched, and their composition changed regularly with day age. The dominant bacteria, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Lactobacillus, play crucial roles in lung function development and physiological activities. It paves the way for further research on the mechanism of pulmonary microbiota-mediated lung injury in broilers.
家禽生产中的呼吸健康问题频繁且棘手，因此引起了农民和研究人员的关注。基因测序技术的突破揭示了健康的肺部蕴藏着丰富的微生物群落，其演替和动态平衡与肺部健康状况密切相关，这为以肺部微生物群作为切入点探索肉鸡肺部损伤机制提供了新的思路。本研究旨在探究健康肉鸡在生长周期中肺部微生物群落的演替规律。采集 1、3、14、21、28 和 42 日龄健康肉鸡肺部的固定和分子样本，通过苏木精-伊红染色观察肺组织形态学变化，采用 16S rRNA 基因测序技术分析肺部微生物群落的组成和多样性变化。结果表明，肺部指数在 3 日龄时达到峰值，随后随日龄增长而下降。肺部微生物群落的 α 多样性无显著变化，而 β 多样性随肉鸡生长周期呈规律性变化。厚壁菌门和其下属乳杆菌的相对丰度随日龄增长而增加，变形菌门的相对丰度随日龄增长而减少。差异细菌丰度与预测功能的相关性分析表明，厚壁菌门、变形菌门和乳杆菌等优势菌与大多数功能丰度显著相关，表明它们可能参与了肉鸡肺部功能发育和生理活动。综上，这些发现提示肉鸡在刚孵化时肺部就已定植了丰富的微生物群落，其组成随日龄呈规律性变化。优势菌厚壁菌门、变形菌门和乳杆菌在肺部功能发育和生理活动中发挥着关键作用。为进一步研究肺部微生物群介导的肉鸡肺部损伤机制奠定了基础。
