chicken gut metagenome Metagenome. chicken gut metagenome

Cereal grains are commonly contaminated with the Fusarium toxin deoxynivalenol (DON). Due to the vast use of cereal grains in rations for livestock animals worldwide, DON-contaminated feed is a very harmful factor for animal health. Chickens are especially sensitive to moderate DON levels, compromising growth performance and functioning of the immune system. More recent research indicates that the gut microbiota may modulate the toxicity of DON. We investigated the impact of low to moderate DON contamination levels on the cecal bacterial microbiota, their predicted metabolic abilities and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) profiles in chickens. In using a single oral LPS challenge we further assessed whether an additional intestinal stress factor would potentiate DON-related effects on the cecal microbiota. Eighty one-day-old chicks were fed diets with increasing DON concentrations (0, 2.5, 5, and 10 mg DON per kg diet) for 5 weeks and were sampled after half of the chickens received an oral LPS challenge (1mg LPS/kg bodyweight) 1 day before sampling.