Controlled intestinal microbiota colonisation in broilers under the industrial production system

Immediately post hatch, young chicks are exposed to microbes in the air, feed and environment, and rapid colonisation of the gut begins. In environments loaded with pathogens, this process is critical with lifelong implications for the birds. Here we present the large scale commercial hatchery based experiment using the hen in the bag approach similar to faecal transfer in humans, where the highly diverse product, based on chicken caecal microbiota, was administered via automated spray equipment to the birds immediately post-hatch to mimic maternal inoculation. We report highly significant alterations in gut microbiota across upper and lower gut sections, changes in diversity in the caecum and jejunal mucosa, high resemblance of the inoculum microbial community to the caecal microbiota of the birds and consistently higher weight of treated animals.