Microbial Populations in Naked Neck Chicken Ceca Raised on Pasture Flock Fed with Commercial Yeast Cell Wall Prebiotics via an Illumina MiSeq Platform

PLoS One. 2016 Mar 18;11(3):e0151944. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0151944. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Prebiotics are non-digestible carbohydrate dietary supplements that selectively stimulate the growth of one or more beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract of the host. These bacteria can inhibit colonization of pathogenic bacteria by producing antimicrobial substances such as short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and competing for niches with pathogens within the gut. Pasture flock chickens are generally raised outdoors with fresh grass, sunlight and air, which represents different environmental growth conditions compared to conventionally raised chickens. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the difference in microbial populations from naked neck chicken ceca fed with commercial prebiotics derived from brewer's yeast cell wall via an Illumina MiSeq platform. A total of 147 day-of-hatch naked neck chickens were distributed into 3 groups consisted of 1) C: control (no prebiotic), 2) T1: Biolex® MB40 with 0.2%, and 3) T2: Leiber® ExCel with 0.2%, consistently supplemented prebiotics during the experimental period. At 8 weeks, a total of 15 birds from each group were randomly selected and ceca removed for DNA extraction. The Illumina Miseq platform based on V4 region of 16S rRNA gene was applied for microbiome analysis. Both treatments exhibited limited impact on the microbial populations at the phylum level, with no significant differences in the OTU number of Bacteroidetes among groups and an increase of Proteobacteria OTUs for the T1 (Biolex® MB40) group. In addition there was a significant increase of genus Faecalibacterium OTU, phylum Firmicutes. According to the development of next generation sequencing (NGS), microbiome analysis based on 16S rRNA gene proved to be informative on the prebiotic impact on poultry gut microbiota in pasture-raised naked neck birds.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animal Husbandry / methods
  • Animals
  • Bacteria / genetics
  • Bacteria / isolation & purification
  • Campylobacter / genetics
  • Campylobacter / isolation & purification
  • Cecum / microbiology*
  • Chickens / microbiology*
  • Housing, Animal
  • Microbiota / drug effects*
  • Prebiotics*

Substances

  • Prebiotics

Grants and funding

Research funding was awarded to author SCR and from Leiber GmbH (http://www.leibergmbh.de/), Hafenstraße, Germany. Leiber GmbH played a role in initial phases of the project and the editing of the publication but had no additional role in final study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.