Bacteriophage cocktail supplementation improves growth performance, gut microbiome and production traits in broiler chickens

Abstract

Background: Effective antibiotic alternatives are the urgent need of poultry industry to control disease outbreaks. Phage therapy mainly utilizes lytic phages to kill their respective bacterial hosts and can be attractive solution to combating the emergence of antibiotic resistance in livestock. Methods: Five hundred and four one-day--old broilers (Ross 308) were allotted into 1 of 4 treatment groups according to a completely randomized design. Dietary treatments consisted of CON (basal diet), PC (CON + 0.025% Avilamax®(antibiotics), TR1 (CON + 0.05% bacteriophage), and TR2 (CON + 0.10 % bacteriophage) groups. Results: A significant linear effect on body weight gain (BWG) was observed during day 1-7, day 22-35, and overall experiment in bacteriophage (BP) supplemented groups. The BWG tended to be higher (P = 0.08) and the feed intake (FI) was increased (P = 0.017) in birds fed PC than CON diets. A greater (P = 0.016) BWG and trends in increased FI (P = 0.06) were observed during the overall experiment period in birds fed PC than CON diet. A trend in linear (P = 0.0833) increment in excreta Lactobacillus counts was observed in birds fed graded level of BP supplemented diets. At the genus level, the relative abundance of Lactobacillus was decreased in PC (65.28%), while it was similar in TR1, 2, (90.65%, 86.72%, 81.44%) compared to CON (90.19%). At the species level, relative abundance of Lactobacillus salivarus was higher in TR1 (40.15%) and TR2 (38.58%) compared with CON (20.04%) and PC (18.05%). A linear reduction in the weight of Bursa of Fabricus (P = 0.022) and spleen (P = 0.052) was seen in birds fed increasing level of BP diets and a trend in increment (P = 0.059) in the weight of gizzard was observed in birds fed PC than BP diets. Linear and quadratic responses were observed in redness of breast muscle color in birds fed graded level of BP. Conclusions:The increase in dietary BP supplementation linearly increased BWG, Lactobacillus counts and enhanced beneficial microbiota in the gut, and 0.05% BP addition was sufficient for supporting immune organs, bursa and spleen.

The Efficiency of Bacteriophages Against Salmonella Typhimurium Infection in Native Noi Broilers

“…Regarding spleen weight ratio, the benefit of treating The Efficiency of Bacteriophages Against Salmonella Typhimurium Infection in Native Noi Broilers chicken with phages was not demonstrated compared to those from Kim et al (2013), whose results showed a drop in spleen weight relative to body weight, indicating that phage inclusion was better. The current outputs are consistent with the findings of Upadhaya et al (2021), who discovered that the relative weight of the gizzard increased more substantially in the positive control group than the control and phage groups, which could be explained by an increase in feed intake in the positive control group. On the other hand, supplementation with anti-S. Enteritidis bacteriophage did not affect the relative weight of organs after 35 days (Kim et al, 2013).…”

“…For example, in experiments using diets containing phages against S. Gallinarum, S. Typhimurium, and S. Enteritidis, where broiler chickens were raised under normal physiological conditions (without bacterial challenge), improvements in body weight and FCR were observed (Lim et al, 2010;Kim et al, 2014;Wójcik et al, 2020). This is due to the fact that the bacteriophage inhibits the growth of bacteria in the broilers' gastrointestinal tract (Lim et al, 2010), and the increase in body weight may be related to an increase in feed intake (Upadhaya et al, 2021). However, not all cases of phage therapy or phage supplementation in diets resulted in enhanced broiler production traits.…”

“…Due to their availability, nontoxicity, and specificity to the bacterial hosts, lytic phages have been utilized as efficient tools for various purposes such as improving food safety or preventing and treating bacterial pathogens (Brovko et al, 2012;Sulakvelidze, 2013). In addition, bacteriophages are extremely specific by infecting only a single species of bacteria, and phage therapy is regarded as safer and more effective than antibiotics (Upadhaya et al, 2021). Previously, several reports have mentioned the positive effects of bacteriophage in reducing pathogens and improving the production performance of broiler chickens (Atterbury et al, 2007;Lim et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2013).…”

Preliminary Study to Investigate the Effect of Lactobacillus Reuteri Administration on Growth Performance, Immunological, Gut Microbiome and Intestinal Mucosa of Chicken

“…can quickly create a complex bacterial community and protect the host from harmful bacteria infections. In addition, the intestinal microbiota affects the physiological development, health, and productivity, leading to the hypothesis that the use of feed additives such as organic acids can be useful to control microbial community (Upadhaya et al, 2021). Previously, Kim et al (2014) reported that Prevotella and Arcobacter are important acetate-producing bacteria.…”

Recent Progress in Phage Therapy for Controlling Multidrug- Resistant <em>Acinetobacter Baumannii</em> Including in Human and Poultry

“…Wu et al reported the administration of a phage cocktail to four patients in a COVID-19 intensive care unit in China was able to treat carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii infection, otherwise showing the insurgence of phage-resistant A. baumannii strains when only one phage was administered [62]. The application of a cocktail of bacteriophages has also been demonstrated to be an effective substitute to antibiotic growth promoter replacement in broiler diets [63], which would further assist to reduce development of anti-microbial resistance arising from poultry production. The combination of phages (φkm18p, φTZ1 and φ314) as a cocktail was able to decrease the concentration of A baumannii in another study in contrast to single-phage administration, otherwise correlated to recidivist bacterial growth [64].…”