Early life inoculation with a competitive exclusion product accelerates maturation of intestinal microbiota and enhances NK cell activation in broiler chickens

Studies in mammals and chickens have shown that the development of the immune system is affected by interactions with intestinal microbiota. Early life modulation of microbial colonization may affect the innate and adaptive immune development and may have long lasting effects on health of broiler chickens. This study investigated the effects of inoculation of broiler chickens with a competitive exclusion product on intestinal microbiota composition and development of natural killer (NK) cells. We hypothesized that inoculation directly upon hatch (day 0) with an adult-derived microbiota (AM) product would induce an alteration in microbiota composition shortly after hatch, and subsequently affect intestinal NK cell subsets and activation.