chicken gut metagenome Metagenome. chicken gut metagenome

Chickens of good and poor feed efficiency differ in their feed intake and gut microbiota composition. However, the cause and effect relationship between FE-associated microbiota and chicken’s feed intake level (FL) is not clear. In the present study, we investigated the effect of restrictive versus ad libitum feeding on the ileal and cecal microbiota, visceral organ size, intestinal morphology, permeability, and expression of genes in relation to nutrient transporters, barrier function, and innate immune response in broiler chickens of diverging FE. The FE was determined for the experimental period between 9 and 30 days. At day 33-37 posthatch, chickens with extreme RFI values (low RFI = good feed efficiency; high RFI = poor feed efficiency) were selected, and the microbiota composition in ileal and ceca was assessed using paired-end sequencing of the V3-5 region of the 16S rRNA gene using the Illumina MiSeq platform.