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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Biosciences & Biotechnology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #404463
Research Project: Nutritional Strategies to Improve Production Efficiencies in Broiler Chickens

Location: Animal Biosciences & Biotechnology Laboratory

Title: Editorial: Avian microbiome: from embryonic development to adulthood

Author
item Proszkowiec-Weglarz, Monika
item OAKLEY, BRIAN - Western University Of Health Sciences
item ELLASTAD, LAURA - University Of Georgia
item JAVED, SUNDUS - Comsats Institute Of Information Technology

Submitted to: Frontiers in Physiology
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/23/2023
Publication Date: 5/3/2023
Citation: Proszkowiec-Wegla, M.K., Oakley, B., Ellastad, L.E., Javed, S. 2023. Editorial: Avian microbiome: from embryonic development to adulthood. Frontiers in Physiology. 14:1211911. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1211911.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1211911

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Avian gastrointestinal and reproductive microbiota are composed of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protists and characterized by commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic relationships with the host. Microbial populations play an important role in modulating host growth and reproductive performance, including nutrient digestion, absorption, and utilization, metabolic and reproductive efficiency, pathogen exclusion, endocrine activity, and immune system development. In chickens, symbiotic relationships between the host and the microbiota have been characterized by nutrient exchange, modulation of the immune system, pathogen exclusion, and gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and reproductive physiology. Microbiota composition and function can be affected by many factors, including age, host genotype and sex, diet composition and form, feed additives such as antibiotics, probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics, synbiotics, phytobiotics and bacteriophages, stress, and location in the GIT or reproductive tract. Most microbiome research in avian species has been focused on the GIT of domestic poultry such as broilers, laying hens, and, to some extent, turkeys. The reproductive microbiota in domestic poultry, as well as both the intestinal and reproductive microbiota of wild birds, remain largely unknown. Moreover, most current microbiome research primarily focuses on compositional studies using 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA), and sequencing and functional studies remain elusive. The goal of this Research Topic was to provide a comprehensive overview of the avian microbiome that includes studies addressing intestinal microbiomes in both domestic and wild birds, including compositional and functional studies.