| Poultry production is a fast growing business and producing healthy birds is vital to the food industry. A major factor influencing the maintenance of a healthy bird is a healthy gut. Poultry intestinal organs contain microflora that are essential for life sustaining functions. Bacteria, in particular, play a great role in chicken health. Various beneficial bacteria have proven to significantly reduce the presence of disease-causing pathogens in poultry, without any additional need for antibiotics. Recent reports indicate that incorporating fungal supplements have positive impacts on poultry health and production. This study examined the bacterial diversity and abundance in the bursa and stomach of chicken fed fungal-based supplements. Samples from the bursa and stomach were collected from treated chickens and subjected to 16S rRNA metagenomics and analysis. Results indicated that addition of supplements to feed altered chicken intestinal bacteria. Fungal supplementation increased the diversity of beneficial bacteria in the stomach, indicating that it is probable fungal supplementation produced compounds conducive to ability of beneficial bacteria to inhabit the stomach. Pathogen diversity and relative abundance were reduced in the bursa due to supplementation. In general, the results suggest that 5% dietary inclusion and 56 days of incubation of the fungal supplement during supplement preparation had significant and positive impact on the chicken stomach microbiome, promoting the diversity of beneficial bacteria in the gut of treated chicken. A repeat of this experiment in a commercial production setting will confirm our results and open the way for the application of mushroom-based supplement with chicken feed in the poultry industry. |
