Poultry litter soil amendment impacts on soil microbiome and resistome profiles

Commercial broiler poultry production produces a large amount of poultry litter, a mixture of bedding materials such as saw dust, spilled feed and water, excreta (feces and urine), feathers and dead birds. As such poultry litter is a rich source of organic nutrients. The most common way of poultry litter removal from poultry houses is through land application as organic fertilizer. However, the impact of poultry litter land application on soil microbiome and resistome, total microbial and resistance determinants, respectively is not well understood. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of poultry litter soil amendment on the soil microbiome and resistome profile. Experimental field trial was conducted on a corn field in which subplots were randomized to one of three treatments: standard chemical fertilizer, poultry litter, or unfertilized control. Total DNA was extracted from the core soil samples collected at baseline, i.e. before treatment application, and on days 7 and 28 post treatment and sequenced and the microbiome and resistome profiles were analyzed using a bioinformatics pipeline.