Mucosal microbiota of week-old chicken and adult hens

Sixteen one-week-old chicks and 19 adult egg-laying hens (age ranging from 30 to 50 weeks) were included in this studySince mucus associated microbiota was absent from one-week-old chicks we were transferring mucosal bacteria to newly hatched chicks by contact with an adult hens.Chicks can be colonised by mucosal microbiota from the first moments of their life and Mucispirillum, Helicobacter, Desulfovibrio and Anaerobiospirillum were transmitted to newly hatched chickens by contact with donor hens. The fact that bacterial species from mucosal microbiota appear mostly in adult egg layers or chickens with access to indicates that there is a lack of sources of mucosal microbiota in hatcheries and farms in early days of production and that these anaerobic species do not survive efficiently in external aerobic environment.