Insect-based diet, a promising nutritional source, modulates gut microbiota composition and SCFAs production in laying hens

Abstract

Insects could be potential nutritional sources both for humans and animals. Among these, Hermetia illucens, with good amount of chitin and proteins, represents a suitable diet replacement for laying hens. Little is known about insect diet effects on the microbial ecology of the gastrointestinal tract and bacterial metabolites production. In this study we investigated the effect of H. illucens larvae meal administration on cecal microbiota and short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production in laying hens. 16S rDNA sequencing showed strong differences between cecal microbiota of soybean (SD) and insect diet (ID) groups both in type and relative abundance (unweighted and weighted beta diversity) of microbial species. In particular, Bacteroides plebeius, Elusimicrobium minutum, Alkaliphilus transvaalensis, Christensenella minuta, Vallitalea guaymasensis and Flavonifractor plautii represented the principal contributors of changes in gut microbiota composition of ID group (FDR p-values < 0.05). Of these, F. plautii, C. minuta and A. transvaalensis have the potential to degrade the chitin’s insect meal and correlated with the observed high levels of gut SCFAs produced in ID group. These microorganisms may thus connect the chitin degradation with high SCFAs production. Our results suggest H. illucens as a potential prebiotic by well feeding gut microbiota.

Yeast fermentate prebiotic improves intestinal barrier integrity during heat stress by modulation of the gut microbiota in rats

“…Stimulation of bifidobacteria in the gut of elderly people by prebiotic supplementation was found in clinical trials (Guigoz et al, 2002). High-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that in all groups of rats Firmicutes was a dominant phylum that is in accordance with the data of other authors (Golubeva et al, 2015;Byerley et al, 2017). Significant changes of the gut microbiota in different groups were found at the genus taxonomic level.…”

“…Butyrate is recognized as an essential host energy source (Donohoe et al, ), which can protect the mucus layer from injury (van der Beek et al, ). Positive contribution of Lactococcus and Vallitalea to the change of microbiota was noticed by other authors in humans and animals (Borrelli et al, ; Savage et al, ; Mao et al, ). We did not find significant change of the microbiota in EC group, except decreased abundance of Bifidobacterium .…”

Growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat and egg quality, and intestinal microbiota in Beijing-you chicken on diets with inclusion of fresh chicory forage

“…Previous studies demonstrated that feed additives (prebiotics and probiotics) modulate the microbial ecology of the poultry GIT, and improve gut functionality and consequentially the health status (Jiang et al 2014;Borrelli et al 2017). In this study, pyrosequencing results indicated that dietary supplementation of chicory forage might have benefited intestinal health by increasing the microbial community diversity in caecum of chickens.…”

“…In this study, pyrosequencing results indicated that dietary supplementation of chicory forage might have benefited intestinal health by increasing the microbial community diversity in caecum of chickens. Several studies, in fact, revealed that a rich microbial community is associated with a healthy status as a more diverse microbial community shows stronger homeostasis of the intestinal microbial community and resistance to pathogens (Borrelli et al 2017;Li et al 2017). On the contrary, the stimulation of predominant bacteria might have led to a fall in the microbial diversity in duodenum and ileum of chickens fed chicory forage diets compared to the control.…”

Genetic and biochemical analysis of host-microbe interactions affecting gut homeostasis: functional and genomic analysis of polyphenol catabolism by bacteria from Clostridium cluster IV

“…It should also be noted that Flavonifractor spp. are more commonly reported in 16S rRNA and metagenome profiling studies performed in animal subjects (Oakley et al, 2014, Medvecky et al, 2018, Zhang et al, 2018a, Borrelli et al, 2017, Liu et al, 2017a, Liu et al, 2018.…”