Succession in the intestinal microbiota of preadolescent turkeys

bThe critically endangered New Zealand parrot, the kakapo, is subject to an intensive management regime aiming to maintain bird health and boost population size. Newly hatched kakapo chicks are subjected to human intervention and are frequently placed in captivity throughout their formative months. Hand rearing greatly reduces mortality among juveniles, but the potential long-term impact on the kakapo gut microbiota is uncertain. To track development of the kakapo gut microbiota, fecal samples from healthy, prefledged juvenile kakapos, as well as from unrelated adults, were analyzed by using 16S rRNA gene amplicon pyrosequencing. Following the original sampling, juvenile kakapos underwent a period of captivity, so further sampling during and after captivity aimed to elucidate the impact of captivity on the juvenile gut microbiota. Variation in the fecal microbiota over a year was also investigated, with resampling of the original juvenile population. Amplicon pyrosequencing revealed a juvenile fecal microbiota enriched with particular lactic acid bacteria compared to the microbiota of adults, although the overall community structure did not differ significantly among kakapos of different ages. The abundance of key operational taxonomic units (OTUs) was correlated with antibiotic treatment and captivity, although the importance of these factors could not be proven unequivocally within the bounds of this study. Finally, the microbial community structure of juvenile and adult kakapos changed over time, reinforcing the need for continual monitoring of the microbiota as part of regular health screening.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Hand Rearing and Bird Age on the Fecal Microbiota of the Critically Endangered Kakapo

Waite

Eason²,

Taylor

2014

“…Their results indicated a shift in dominant Campylobacter jejuni strains at 4 weeks after hatching irrespective of the extant microbiota, suggesting a hostmediated effect on Campylobacter colonization. Finally, a previous report identified a mid-grow-out microbiota community shift in the cecal communities of turkeys and a possible correlation with Campylobacter colonization (38).…”

mentioning

confidence: 74%

“…Research in the current manuscript expands a previous examination of Campylobacter colonization in relation to intestinal bacterial population dynamics (38). A series of molecular methods were used to describe cecal bacterial dynamics.…”

mentioning

confidence: 91%

Campylobacter Colonization of the Turkey Intestine in the Context of Microbial Community Development

Scupham

2009

Self Cite

Patterns of microbial community dynamics in the turkey intestine were examined. Every week of the 18-week production cycle, cecal bacterial communities and Campylobacter loads were examined from five birds for each of two flocks. Molecular fingerprinting via the automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) of the cecal samples revealed that microbial communities changed in a time-dependent manner, and during both trials they developed via transition through three phases during the production cycle. A core component of the microbiota consisting of 11 Bacteroidetes types was present throughout both trials. In contrast, constant succession was detected in the Clostridiales populations until week 10 or 11, with few shared sequences between the flocks. Changes in Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli loads were correlated to, but not dependent on, the two acute transitions delimiting the three developmental phases.

“…Two of these phylotypes (T-RF 286) may be related to F. prausnitzii, a Gram-negative obligate anaerobe belonging to the C. leptum group (cluster IV), which is dominant in the ceca of chickens (45). F. prausnitzii is urolytic, has a requirement for acetate, and produces SCFA such as butyrate, formate, and lactate (59). Butyric acid has been shown to have an important function in protection against pathogens in poultry (25).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification and Characterization of Potential Performance-Related Gut Microbiotas in Broiler Chickens across Various Feeding Trials

Torok

Hughes

Mikkelsen

et al. 2011

286

218

Three broiler feeding trials were investigated in order to identify gut bacteria consistently linked with improvements in bird performance as measured by feed efficiency. Trials were done in various geographic locations and varied in diet composition, broiler breed, and bird age. Gut microbial communities were investigated using microbial profiling. Eight common performance-linked operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified within both the ilea (180, 492, and 564-566) and ceca (140-142, 218-220, 284-286, 312, and 482) across trials. OTU 564-566 was associated with lower performance, while OTUs 140-142, 482, and 492 were associated with improved performance. Targeted cloning and sequencing of these eight OTUs revealed that they represented 26 bacterial species or phylotypes which clustered phylogenetically into seven groups related to Lactobacillus spp., Ruminococcaceae, Clostridiales, Gammaproteobacteria, Bacteroidales, Clostridiales/Lachnospiraceae, and unclassified bacteria/clostridia. Where bacteria were identifiable to the phylum level, they belonged predominantly to the Firmicutes, with Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria also identified. Some of the potential performance-related phylotypes showed high sequence identity with classified bacteria (Lactobacillus salivarius, Lactobacillus aviarius, Lactobacillus crispatus, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Escherichia coli, Gallibacterium anatis, Clostridium lactatifermentans, Ruminococcus torques, Bacteroides vulgatus, and Alistipes finegoldii). The 16S rRNA gene sequence information generated will allow quantitative assays to be developed which will enable elucidations of which of these phylotypes are truly performance related. This information could be used to monitor strategies to improve feed efficiency and feed formulation for optimal gut health.Because feed constitutes approximately 70% of the cost of raising broiler chickens (1), the most common measures of bird performance have been linked to weight gain and feed efficiency. Broiler performance is closely linked to the genetics, diet, age, and rearing environment of the bird (1,23,32,54). Genetic selection has largely driven the vast improvements observed in weight gain and feed efficiency in meat chickens over the last 50 years, although a small proportion of these improvements have been attributed to nutrition and other management practices (32). The genetic changes associated with improved weight gain and feed efficiency have also resulted in changes to the gut physiology and gut microbial community composition of birds (44). Diet, age, and environmental factors have also been reported to influence the gut microbiota (43,71,72). Therefore, there appears to be a clear link between bird performance and gut microbiota composition.In medicine, much interest has already focused on the influence of the gut microbiota in human health (35,78) and energy metabolism (73,74,83).