Insights into broilers’ gut microbiota fed with phosphorus, calcium, and phytase supplemented diets

Publication Type

Journal contribution (peer reviewed)

Authors

Borda-Molina D, Vital M, Sommerfeld V, Rodehutscord M and Camarinha-Silva A

Year of publication

2016

Published in

Frontiers in Microbiology

Band/Volume

7:2033/

DOI

10.3389/fmicb.2016.02033

Page (from - to)

13 S.

Keywords

Calcium, gastrointestinal tract, Huhn, Mikrobiota, phosphorus, phytase, Sequenzierung

Phytase supplementation in broiler diets is a common practice to improve phosphorus (P) availability and to reduce P loss by excretion. An enhanced P availability, and ist concomitant supplementation with calcium (Ca), can affect the structure of the microbial community in the digestive tract of broiler chickens. Here, we aim to distinguish the effects of mineral P, Ca, and phytase on the composition of microbial communities present in the content and the mucosa layer of the gastrointestinaltract (GIT) of broiler chickens. Significant differences were observed between digesta and mucosa samples for the GIT sections studied (p=0.001). The analyses of 56 individual birds showed a high microbial composition variability within the replicates of the same diet. The average similarity within replicates of digesta and mucosa samples across all diets ranged from 29 to 82% in crop, 19–49% in ileum, and 17–39% in caeca. Broilers fed with a diet only supplemented with Ca had the lowest bodyweight gain and feed conversion values while diets supplemented with P showed the best performance results. An effect of each diet on crop mucosa samples was observed, however, similar results were not obtained from digesta samples. … is investigated.