Physiological aspects of growth promotion in poultry

Davison, T.F.; Freeman, B. M.

doi:10.1007/bf02228597

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…They found neither to be true but rather that location, diet, and age were the most significant features [32]. Although at first sight this is inconsistent with the idea of a single thread passing from the Precambrian to present times, the dilemma may be resolved if the focus is on microbial function rather than microbial composition, especially bearing in mind the possibility that it is the retention of microeukaryotes that is important [28][29][30][31][32][33].…”

Section: The Vertebratesmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…It is possible that lead poisoning, whether overt or covert via the microbiome, may be a part of the explanation for the sudden disappearance of hedgehogs, specifically Erinaceus europaeus, in the more heavily polluted parts of England [15]. More credibly, perhaps, the use of antibiotics to drive growth in farm animals prior to slaughter, not only in mammals such as swine [28] but also chickens [29] and possibly fish [30], may be indicative of such microbial malfunction [1]. Evidence of microbiome-function deficiency disease in domesticated animals is not restricted to weight gain, as atopic disease is also observed [31].…”

Section: The Vertebratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Enclosed Intestinal Microbiome: Semiochemical Signals from the Precambrian and Their Disruption by Heavy Metal Pollution

Smith¹,

Palacios-Pérez

Jheeta³

2022

Life

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It is increasingly likely that many non-communicable diseases of humans and associated animals are due to the degradation of their intestinal microbiomes, a situation often referred to as dysbiosis. An analysis of the resultant diseases offers an opportunity to probe the function of these microbial partners of multicellular animals. In our view, it now seems likely that vertebrate animals and their microbiomes have coevolved throughout the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition and beyond, operating by semiochemical messaging between the multicellular host and its microbial community guest. A consideration of the overall role of the mutualistic intestinal microbiome as an enclosed bioreactor throws up a variety of challenging concepts. In particular: the significance of the microbiome with respect to the immune system suggests that microeukaryotes could act as microbial sentinel cells; the ubiquity of bacteriophage viruses implies the rapid turnover of microbial composition by a viral-shunt mechanism; and high microbial diversity is needed to ensure that horizontal gene transfer allows valuable genetic functions to be expressed. We have previously postulated that microbes of sufficient diversity must be transferred from mother to infant by seemingly accidental contamination during the process of natural birth. We termed this maternal microbial inheritance and suggested that it operates alongside parental genetic inheritance to modify gene expression. In this way, the adjustment of the neonate immune system by the microbiome may represent one of the ways in which the genome of a vertebrate animal interacts with its microbial environment. The absence of such critical functions in the neonate may help to explain the observation of persistent immune-system problems in affected adults. Equally, granted that the survival of the guest microbiome depends on the viability of its host, one function of microbiome-generated semiochemicals could be to facilitate the movement of food through the digestive tract, effectively partitioning nutrition between host and guest. In the event of famine, downregulation of microbial growth and therefore of semiochemical production would allow all available food to be consumed by the host. Although it is often thought that non-communicable diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, are caused by consumption of food containing insufficient dietary fibre, our hypothesis suggests that poor-quality food is not the prime cause but that the tendency for disease follows the degradation of the intestinal microbiome, when fat build-up occurs because the relevant semiochemicals can no longer be produced. It is the purpose of this paper to highlight the possibility that the origins of the microbiome lie in the Precambrian and that the disconnection of body and microbiome gives rise to non-communicable disease through the loss of semiochemical signalling. We further surmise that this disconnect has been largely brought about by heavy metal poisoning, potentially illuminating a facet of the exposome, the sum total of environmental insults that influence the expression of the genetic inheritance of an animal.

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Section: The Vertebratesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: The Vertebratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Enclosed Intestinal Microbiome: Semiochemical Signals from the Precambrian and Their Disruption by Heavy Metal Pollution

Smith¹,

Palacios-Pérez

Jheeta³

2022

Life

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“…Growing children may also be vulnerable to the distortion of microbiome function. However, these effects are not limited to people, and they have found extensive use in the enlargement of farmed animals such as swine [106], chickens [107], and, possibly even fish [108]. It is interesting to note that common antibiotics also affect microeukaryotes [109], but there is no reason to suppose that microbial sentinel cells would be eliminated in this way.…”

Section: Antibioticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Inheritance of Microbiome-Deficiency: Paediatric Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, the Immune System and the Gut–Brain Axis

Smith¹,

Jheeta²,

López-Cortés

et al. 2023

Gastrointestinal Disorders

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Like the majority of non-communicable diseases that have recently gained attention, functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorders (FGID) in both children and adults are caused by a variety of medical conditions. In general, while it is often thought that common conditions such as obesity may cause other problems, for example, asthma or mental health issues, more consideration needs to be given to the possibility that they could both be brought on by a single underlying problem. Based on the variations in non-communicable disease, in recent years, our group has been revisiting the exact role of the intestinal microbiome within the Vertebrata. While the metabolic products of the microbiome have a role to play in the adult, our tentative conclusion is that the fully functioning, mutualistic microbiome has a primary role: to transfer antigen information from the mother to the neonate in order to calibrate its immune system, allowing it to survive within the microbial environment into which it will emerge. Granted that the microbiome possesses such a function, logic suggests the need for a robust, flexible, mechanism allowing for the partition of nutrition in the mature animal, thus ensuring the continued existence of both the vertebrate host and microbial guest, even under potentially unfavourable conditions. It is feasible that this partition process acts by altering the rate of peristalsis following communication through the gut–brain axis. The final step of this animal–microbiota symbiosis would then be when key microbes are transferred from the female to her progeny, either live offspring or eggs. According to this scheme, each animal inherits twice, once from its parents’ genetic material and once from the mother’s microbiome with the aid of the father’s seminal microbiome, which helps determine the expression of the parental genes. The key point is that the failure of this latter inheritance in humans leads to the distinctive manifestations of functional FGID disorders including inflammation and gut motility disturbances. Furthermore, it seems likely that the critical microbiome–gut association occurs in the first few hours of independent life, in a process that we term handshaking. Note that even if obvious disease in childhood is avoided, the underlying disorders may intrude later in youth or adulthood with immune system disruption coexisting with gut–brain axis issues such as excessive weight gain and poor mental health. In principle, investigating and perhaps supplementing the maternal microbiota provide clinicians with an unprecedented opportunity to intervene in long-term disease processes, even before the child is born.

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“…On farming practice, it has been common to add antibiotics, under the guise of growth promoters, to the feed of mammals such as swine [75], to poultry [76], and even to fish [77]. It seems likely that the resultant animal enlargement is due to the removal of key intestinal microbes.…”

Section: Probiotics and Missing Microbesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbiome–Gut Dissociation: Investigating the Origins of Obesity

Smith¹,

Jheeta²

2021

Gastrointestinal Disorders

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The reduction of excessive weight remains a major public health challenge, with control currently limited to a calorie reduction strategy. Currently, attempts are being made at revisiting the fibre hypothesis based on the African studies of Denis Burkitt, that the lack of dietary fibre in the modern diet was responsible for the occurrence of obesity and many of the other non-communicable diseases of what he called “Western civilization”. However, the dilemma is that Burkitt himself stressed that other peoples of his day, such as the Maasai, remained healthy without consuming such high fibre diets. Equally, the present obesity epidemic is accompanied by diseases of a malfunctioning immune system and of poor mental health that do not seem to be adequately explained simply by a deficiency of dietary fibre. Though unknown in Burkitt’s day, an increasing degradation of a mutualistic intestinal microbiome would offer a better fit to the observed epidemiology, especially if the microbiome is not effectively passed on from mother to child at birth. Taking the broader view, in this article we posit a view of the microbiome as a cofactor of mammalian evolution, in which a maternal microbial inheritance complements the parental genetic inheritance of the animal, both engaging epigenetic processes. As this would require the microbiome to be fully integrated with the animal as it develops into an adult, so we have a meaningful evolutionary role for the microbiome–gut–brain axis. By a failure to correctly establish a microbiome–gut interface, the inhibition of maternal microbial inheritance sets the scene for the future development of non-communicable disease: compromised immune system function on the one hand and dysfunctional gut–brain communication on the other. The basic principle is that the fully functioning, diverse, microbiome achieves interkingdom communication by the generation of messenger chemicals, semiochemicals. It is envisaged that the in situ detection of these as yet ill-defined chemical entities by means of an ingestible sensor would indicate the severity of disease and provide a guide as to its amelioration.

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Physiological aspects of growth promotion in poultry

Cited by 6 publications

References 43 publications

The Enclosed Intestinal Microbiome: Semiochemical Signals from the Precambrian and Their Disruption by Heavy Metal Pollution

The Enclosed Intestinal Microbiome: Semiochemical Signals from the Precambrian and Their Disruption by Heavy Metal Pollution

On the Inheritance of Microbiome-Deficiency: Paediatric Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, the Immune System and the Gut–Brain Axis

Microbiome–Gut Dissociation: Investigating the Origins of Obesity

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