Spotlight on the avian gut microbiome: fresh opportunities in discovery

ABSTRACT

Chickens represent a globally ubiquitous food animal underpinning many aspects of human nutrition and health. Consumption of chicken meat continues to surge, representing a cheaper, healthier, low-carbon alternative to other livestock meats. Despite this importance, we are still unable to define what lives within the chicken gut microbiome. This complex community bridges poultry diet, health and productivity as well as providing a reservoir for zoonotic pathogens. Even with decades of intensive study, we are still discovering novel microbial species within this environment, each of which has the potential to provide an avenue for commercial microbiome modulation. The chicken gut truly represents an exhilarating challenge in turning new-found knowledge into new-won power to improve the health and wealth of poultry and people.

KEYWORDS:

• Microbiome
• chicken
• biodiversity
• metagenomics
• microbial modulation
• poultry performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Ethical statement

This research did not involve human beings and/or animals.

Additional information

Funding

RG is supported by the BBSRC Strategic Programme: Microbes in the Food Chain (project no. BB/R012504/1) and its constituent project [BBS/E/F/000PR10351] (Theme 3, Microbial Communities in the Food Chain).