Bacillus licheniformis normalize the ileum microbiota of chickens infected with necrotic enteritis

Shuai Xu,Yicen Lin,Xueqin Ni,Kangcheng Pan,Dong Zeng,Hui Zhu,Mengjia Zhou,Yi Zhou,Yan Zeng,Bo Jing,Hesong Wang

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-20059-z

Abstract

Necrotic enteritis (NE) is a severe intestinal disease, which can change gut microbiota and result in a high cost for the poultry industry worldwide. However, little is known regarding how the gut microbiota of NE chicken ileum are changed by Bacillus licheniformis. This study was conducted to investigate how ileum microbiota structure was changed by B. licheniformis in broiler chickens challenged with Clostridium perfringens-induced NE through Illumina MiSeq sequencing. The broilers were randomly separated into four groups: the negative control group (NC), the positive control group (PC), the fishmeal and coccidia group (FC), and the PC group supplied with feed containing B. licheniformis (BL). Compared to the PC and FC, alpha diversity, beta diversity, and the bacterial taxa of the ileum microbiota were more similar in BL and NC. Some genera, which were related to the NE control, became insignificant in BL with NC, such as Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Bacteroides, Ruminococcus and Helicobacter. The PICRUSt analysis revealed that a tumour suppressor gene, p53, which was negatively correlated with Helicobacter, was enriched in the BL group. Our findings showed that the ileum microbiota disorder caused by NE in chickens was normalized by dietary B. licheniformis supplementation.

Highlights

Necrotic enteritis (NE) in chickens, which was first reported by Parish in 19611, is a common illness caused by Clostridium perfringens[2]
The animal experiment of our published paper had used the same flocks of chickens, which found that the growth performance of the fishmeal and coccidia group (FC) group was better than that of the positive control group (PC) group and none of the chickens in FC group were dead compared with the PC group[16], which agreed with our previous study
This study found that negative control group (NC) and B. licheniformis (BL) were more similar than PC or FC in community richness and community diversity

Summary

Introduction

Necrotic enteritis (NE) in chickens, which was first reported by Parish in 19611, is a common illness caused by Clostridium perfringens[2]. Probiotics are “friendly” bacteria that help to maintain a normal balance in the intestinal tract by aiding normal digestion, supporting the immune system and promoting overall health[8]. They can likely prevent and treat disease effectively by mainly modulating mucosal immune activity and epithelial barrier function as a biological antagonist, which has already been proven through clinical trials for maintaining disease treatment[9]. The objective of this study was to investigate how the ileum microbiota structure was changed by B. licheniformis in broiler chickens challenged with C. perfringens-induced NE through high-throughput next-generation sequencing

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion