Cecal Microbial Hydrogen Cycling Potential Is Linked to Feed Efficiency Phenotypes in Chickens.

ABSTRACT: In chickens, early life exposure to environmental microbes has long-lasting impacts on gastrointestinal (GI) microbiome development and host health and growth, via mechanisms that remain uncharacterized. In this study, we demonstrated that administrating a fecal microbiome transplant (FMT) from adults to day-of-hatch chicks results in significantly higher body mass of birds and decreased residual feed intake (RFI), implying enhanced feed efficiency, at 6 weeks of age. To assess the potential mechanisms through which FMT affects adult bird phenotype, we combined 16 S rRNA gene amplification, metagenomic, and comparative genomic approaches to survey the composition and predicted activities of the resident microbiome of various GI tract segments. Early life FMT exposure had a long-lasting sig

SUBMITTER: Ramirez GA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9255636 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature