Feed Restriction Modulates the Fecal Microbiota Composition, Nutrient Retention, and Feed Efficiency in Chickens Divergent in Residual Feed Intake
Date
2018-11-19
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Publisher
Frontiers Media
Abstract
There is a great interest to understand the impact of the gut microbiota on host’s
nutrient use and FE in chicken production. Both chicken’s feed intake and gut bacterial
microbiota differ between high and low-feed efficient chickens. To evaluate the impact
of the feed intake level on the feed efficiency (FE)-associated variation in the chicken
intestinal microbiota, differently feed efficient chickens need to eat the same amount of
feed, which can be achieved by feeding chickens restrictively. Therefore, we investigated
the effect of restrictive vs. ad libitum feeding on the fecal microbiome at 16 and 29
days posthatch (dph), FE and nutrient retention in chickens of low and high residual
feed intake (RFI; metric for FE). Restrictively fed chickens were provided the same
amount of feed which corresponded to 85% of the ad libitum fed group from 9 dph.
FE was determined for the period between 9 and 30 dph and feces for nutrient retention
were collected on 31 to 32 dph. From the 112 chickens (n = 56 fed ad libitum, and
n = 56 fed restrictively), 14 low RFI and 15 high RFI ad libitum fed chickens, and
14 low RFI (n = 7 per sex) and 14 high RFI restrictively fed chickens were selected
as the extremes in RFI and were retrospectively chosen for data analysis. Bray-Curtis
dissimilarity matrices showed significant separation between time points, and feeding
level groups at 29 dph for the fecal bacterial communities. Relevance networking
indicated positive associations between Acinetobacter and feed intake at 16 dph,
whereas at 29 dph Escherichia/Shigella and Turicibacter positively and Lactobacillus
negatively correlated to chicken’s feed intake. Enterobacteriaceae was indicative for
low RFI at 16 dph, whereas Acinetobacter was linked to high RFI across time points.
However, restrictive feeding-associated changes in the fecal microbiota were not similar
in low and high RFI chickens, whichmay have been related to the higher nutrient retention
and thus lower fecal nutrient availability in restrictively fed high RFI chickens. Thismay also
explain the decreased RFI value in restrictively fed high RFI chickens indicating improved
FE, with a stronger effect in females.
Description
Publication histroy: Accepted - 23 October 2018; Published - 19 November 2019.
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Article
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Keywords
broiler chicken, fecal microbiota, feed intake level, nutrient retention, residual feed intake
Citation
Siegerstetter, S.-C., Petri, R. M., Magowan, E., Lawlor, P. G., Zebeli, Q., O’Connell, N. E. and Metzler-Zebeli, B. U. (2018) ‘Feed Restriction Modulates the Fecal Microbiota Composition, Nutrient Retention, and Feed Efficiency in Chickens Divergent in Residual Feed Intake’, Frontiers in Microbiology, 9. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02698.