Improving broiler health through cecal microbiota transplantation: a comprehensive study on growth, immunity, and microbial diversity

Abstract

Cecal microbiota has emerged as a prominent intervention target for improving the production and welfare of poultry. This is essential for the overall health and performance of broiler chickens. The current study focused on investigating the effect of cecal microbiota transplantation (CMT) from healthy donor chickens on the growth performance, immunity, and microbial composition of newly hatched chicks and evaluated the effect of sample storage on the microbial diversity of the cecal samples. A healthy "Wannan Yellow Chicken line" was selected as the donor, and 180 1-d-old chicks from the same line were used as recipients for a 60-d feed trial. The chicks were randomly allocated to three groups (60 birds per group) with three replicates in each group. The three treatment groups were CMT-0 (control, normal saline solution), CMT-I (1:12 cecal content, normal saline supplemented with 10% glycerol), and CMT-II (1:6 cecal content, normal saline supplemented with 10% glycerol). The results of weight gain and absolute organ weight showed significant improvements in the CMT-II group compared with the CMT-0 group. Serum IgG level was significantly improved (P < 0.05) in CMT-I compared with that in the CMT-0. However, IL-6 levels increased in CMT-I and then significantly decreased in CMT-II. The cecal microbial diversity of CMT treatment was compared between two groups, fresh samples (FS) and stored samples at-80 °C (SS). The results showed that beneficial taxa, such as Firmicutes and Verrucomicrobiota, were substantially more abundant in both CMT-I and CMT-II than in CMT-0 in both FS and SS. Microbial function analysis at levels 1, 2, and 3 showed improved metabolism, genetic information processing, cellular processes, environmental information processing, and organismal systems in CMT-I and CMT-II for both FS and SS groups. However, the SS group showed decreased microbial diversity and function. To conclude, cecal microbiota transplantation is a promising strategy for enhancing the productivity and health of broiler chickens.

Keywords: cecal microbiota transplantation; chicken; growth performance; immunity; microbial diversity; storage condition.

Graphical Abstract

Figure 1.

Effects of CMT on growth parameters. A: Weight gain and B: feed intake of recipient chicks. Values are least-square means ± SEM. a, b indicates significant differences (P ≤ 0.05).

Figure 2.

Effects of CMT on the mortality rate of newly hatched chicks.

Figure 3.

The effect of CMT on the serum immune markers (A: concentration of serum IgG), (B: The concentration of serum IL-6). Box plot illustrating the distribution of data for three treatment groups. Each box represents the interquartile range (IQR), with the median indicated by the horizontal line within the box. Whiskers extend to the minimum and maximum values within 1.5 times the IQR from the lower and upper quartiles, respectively. Notably, CMT-1 and CMT-2 groups exhibit higher median values compared to CMT-0, suggesting potential treatment effects.

Figure 4.

Post-CMT alpha diversity analysis of FS vs SS and CMT treatment groups. A. Sobs index showing the alpha microbial diversity between treatment groups. B. Alpha diversity refractive index curve. C. Alpha diversity compared between FS and SS.

Figure 5.

Beta diversity analysis. A: UPGMA phylogenetic tree of microbial communities B: PLS-DA two-dimensional scatter + box plot, based on the OUTs. C: PCoA based on the Bray–Curtis dissimilarity metrics D: PCoA based on the Unweighted UniFrac distance. The PCoA plot revealed the positioning of the samples in a reduced-dimensional space.

Figure 6.

Post-CMT composition analysis of FS vs SS groups, and CMT treatment groups. A: Composition analysis at phylum level. B: Composition analysis at family level.

Figure 7.

The indicator species analysis. The upset plot showing the total, unique, and shared OTUs between FS and SS.

Figure 8.

A: The LEfSe analysis cladogram showing the taxonomic levels by rings, with phyla in the outermost ring and genera in the innermost ring. Each ring is a member within that level. The colored taxa in each level are more abundant (P < 0.05; LDA score: 2). B: The plot from LEfSE analysis showing the enriched microbial taxa for FS and SS.

Figure 9.

Heat map presenting the microbial functional analysis between treatment groups. A: Functional analysis at level-2. B: Functional analysis at level-3.