Temporal Relationships Exist Between Cecum, Ileum, and Litter Bacterial Microbiomes in a Commercial Turkey Flock, and Subtherapeutic Penicillin Treatment Impacts Ileum Bacterial Community Establishment.

ABSTRACT: 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

SUBMITTER: Danzeisen JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4672264 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature