Fecal Microbiota Transplant From Highly Feed Efficient Donors Affects Cecal Physiology and Microbiota in Low- and High-Feed Efficient Chickens
Date
2019-07-09
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Publisher
Frontiers Media
Abstract
Fecal microbiota transplants (FMT) may be used to improve chicken’s feed efficiency
(FE) via modulation of the intestinal microbiota and microbe-host signaling. This study
investigated the effect of the administration of FMT from highly feed efficient donors early
in life on the jejunal and cecal microbiota, visceral organ size, intestinal morphology,
permeability, and expression of genes for nutrient transporters, barrier function and
innate immune response in chickens of diverging residual feed intake (RFI; a metric
for FE). Chicks (n = 110) were inoculated with the FMT or control transplant (CT) on
1, 6, and 9 days posthatch (dph), from which 56 chickens were selected on 30 dph
as the extremes in RFI, resulting in 15 low and 13 high RFI chickens receiving the
FMT and 14 low and 14 high RFI chickens receiving the CT. RFI rank and FMT only
caused tendencies for alterations in the jejunal microbiota and only one unclassified
Lachnospiraceae genus in cecal digesta was indicative of high RFI. By contrast, the
FMT caused clear differences in the short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) profile in the crop
and cecal microbiota composition compared to the CT, which indicated alterations
in amylolytic, pullulanolytic and hemicellulolytic bacteria such as Lactobacillus, Dorea,
and Ruminococcus. Moreover, the FMT caused alterations in intestinal development
as indicated by the longer duodenum and shallower crypts in the ceca. From the
observed RFI-associated variation, energy-saving mechanisms and moderation of the
mucosal immune response were indicated by higher jejunal permeability, shorter villi
in the ileum, and enhanced cecal expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL10 in
low RFI chickens. Relationships obtained from supervised multigroup data integration
support that certain bacteria, including Ruminococcocaceae-, Lactobacillus-, and
unclassified Clostridiales-phylotypes, and SCFA in jejunal and cecal digesta modulated
expression levels of cytokines, tight-junction protein OCLN and nutrient transporters
for glucose and SCFA uptake. In conclusion, results suggest that the intestine only
Frontiers in Microbiology | www.frontiersin.org 1 July 2019 | Volume 10 | Article 1576
fmicb-10-01576 July 5, 2019 Time: 15:15 # 2
Metzler-Zebeli et al. Fecal Microbiota Transplant and Gut Functions
played a moderate role for the RFI-associated variation of the present low and high
RFI phenotypes, whereas modulating the early microbial colonization resulted in longlasting changes in bacterial taxonomic and metabolite composition as well as in host
intestinal development.
Description
Publication history: Accepted - 25 June 2019; Published online - 9 July 2019
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Article
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Keywords
broiler chicken, bacterial microbiome, fecal microbiota transplant, gut function, residual feed intake
Citation
Metzler-Zebeli, B. U., Siegerstetter, S.-C., Magowan, E., Lawlor, P. G., O′Connell, N. E. and Zebeli, Q. (2019) ‘Fecal Microbiota Transplant From Highly Feed Efficient Donors Affects Cecal Physiology and Microbiota in Low- and High-Feed Efficient Chickens’, Frontiers in Microbiology. Frontiers Media SA, 10. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.01576.