A study to assess transplantation of the gastrointestinal microbiota from older broiler chickens into young chickens from a different broiler line.

Caecal contents were collected from n=3 Roslin broilers and mixed. N=25 Ross 308 birds were inoculated with this donor mixed caecal content sample within 12 hours of hatch. Another N=25 birds acted as controls, receiving only PBS. Gastrointestinal contents were collected post-mortem from control and treated birds at day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4 and day 7 (groups: n=5). The DNA was extracted from these samples and underwent 16S sequencing to determine the types of bacteria present.