Research/Profiling gut microflora using DNA-based tools
From Poultry Hub
Project Title: Application of advanced DNA-based tools for monitoring and managing the gut microflora of poultry
Project Leader: Kathy Ophel-Keller at SARDI funded by Poultry CRC (Project 03-03a)
Duration of Project: Now completed (1 March 2004 to 1 March 2007)
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Project overview
The microbiology in the gastrointestinal tract of broilers influences the uptake and utilisation of nutrients. Current methods for analysis of intestinal microflora rely on slow and labour-intensive culturing of bacteria in the laboratory.
Project objectives
- Establish microbial profiling techniques for chicken intestinal microflora based on high-throughput, high resolution fingerprinting of bacterial ribosomal gene regions, allowing us to monitor changes in the intestinal microbial community;
- Define what constitutes an optimum intestinal microflora in an “elite” chicken;
- Utilise this technology and benchmark to conduct comparative studies of the effects of dietary manipulations on changes in the “good” and “bad” bacterial population in the gut of chickens.
Project progress
This project has been completed and the Final Report is available from the Poultry CRC (ISBN: 1 921010 16 9).
Development of a high-throughput, high resolution microbial profiling tool capable of provides a “snapshot” of the complex bacterial population has been developed for investigating the gut microflora of poultry.
Gut microbial communities have been analysed by DNA profiling in a number of experiments to examine enzyme additives and prebiotic effects of novel carbohydrates, litter material, environment and age. Significant differences were found in the overall microbial communities between dietary treatments within different parts of the digestive tract. Gut microbial community composition was associated with growth performance.
Implications
The microbial profiling technology developed in this project enables comparative studies to be undertaken for screening differences in gut microbial communities associated with dietary, environmental and developmental changes. This tool allows evaluations of dietary regimes and supplements on poultry gut microflora. We have shown that gut microflora composition is correlated with performance, implying the presence and/or absence of specific organisms are contributing to improved productivity. Identifying and characterising groups of performance related organisms provides greater insight into how gut microflora influences performance and how gut microbial communities are modified by diet. Furthermore, litter type plays a role in poultry gut microflora development. This implies that the choice of litter material is an important factor in modulating the gut microflora.
