Abstract
Free range feeding pattern puts the chicken in a mixture of growth materials and enteric bacteria excreted by nature, while it is typically unique condition materials and enteric bacteria in commercial caged hens production. Thus, the gastrointestinal microflora in two feeding patterns could be various. However, it remains poorly understood how feeding patterns affect development and composition of layer hens’ intestinal microflora. In this study, the effect of feeding patterns on the bacteria community in layer hens’ gut was investigated using free range and caged feeding form. Samples of whole small intestines and cecal digesta were collected from young hens (8-weeks) and mature laying hens (30-weeks). Based on analysis using polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and sequencing of bacterial 16S rDNA gene amplicons, the microflora of all intestinal contents were affected by both feeding patterns and age of hens. Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Fusobacteria were the main components. Additionally, uncultured environmental samples were found too. There were large differences between young hens and adult laying hens, the latter had more Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, and bacterial community is more abundant in 30-weeks laying hens of all six phyla than 8-weeks young hens of only two phyla. In addition, the differences were also observed between free range and caged hens. Free range hens had richer Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria. Most of strains found were detected more abundant in small intestines than in cecum. Also the selected Lactic acid bacteria from hens gut were applied in feed and they had beneficial effects on growth performance and jejunal villus growth of young broilers. This study suggested that feeding patterns have an importance effect on the microflora composition of hens, which may impact the host nutritional status and intestinal health.
Highlights
The intestinal tract is home to 100s of bacterial species, referred to collectively as the intestinal microflora (Ubeda et al, 2017)
Consistent with the previous study, we found the same microflora in the cecum in laying hens, and investigated much more bacterial diversity (13 vs. 2 genera) and more detailed differences in microflora community between young and adult hens fed in two patterns of cage and free range
Our results showed that the microflora of free range hens and laying hens was 21served to be more diverse as compared to the caged hens and young hens, respectively; and the results investigated that the backyard environment was more unpredictable, and the free range hens stored a greater variability of bacterial species
Summary
The intestinal tract is home to 100s of bacterial species, referred to collectively as the intestinal microflora (Ubeda et al, 2017). Information about the composition of the GI microflora in animals is not homogeneous, and affected by different factors. Diet (Stanley et al, 2013; Zhang et al, 2016) and feed additives (Danzeisen et al, 2011) are the most common factors that can impact the GI microflora with respect to diversity, composition, and structure. There are very few studies describing the microflora of chicken and the change between young and adult birds (Han et al, 2016), especially examined the microflora in the GI tract of hens with different age
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