Feeder- and Drinker-Associated Microbiota Differ from Host-Associated Fecal Microbiota During a Commercial Broiler Production Cycle with Age-Associated Changes in Taxonomic Composition.
- 1Department of Food Safety and Quality, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilzes Str. 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania.
- 2Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilzes Str. 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania.
- 3Department of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Animal Sciences, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilzes Str. 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania.
Abstract
Broiler chickens are continuously exposed to microorganisms in the production environment, but the relationship between microorganisms on bird-contact surfaces and fecal microbiota remains unclear. In this exploratory observational study, shotgun metagenomic sequencing was used to compare microbial communities in feeder- and drinker-associated surface samples and individual fecal samples during one production cycle in a single commercial system housing Ross 308 broilers. The dataset comprised 22 individual fecal samples collected on days 1, 7, 19, 27, and 39 and four composite feeder- or drinker-associated environmental surface samples collected on days 1, 19, 27, and 39. Taxonomic composition, alpha and beta diversity, differential taxonomic signatures, and genus-level co-abundance patterns were evaluated. Environmental samples had greater richness and were dominated by Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, whereas host-associated fecal samples were dominated by Firmicutes and lactobacilli. Sample type explained 20.0% of variation in Bray-Curtis distances and 15.5% in Binary Jaccard distances (both p = 0.001). Within host-associated samples, Firmicutes increased from 51.4% on day 1 to 93.6% on day 39, while Proteobacteria decreased from 26.5% to 1.4%. Despite these taxonomic changes, host-associated communities did not form statistically distinct clusters by sampling day. Within the investigated production system, host-associated fecal microbial communities differed from those detected on the sampled feeder and drinker surfaces, while the relative abundance of dominant fecal taxa varied across sampling days. These findings are specific to the investigated production system and production cycle.
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BibTeX
@article{aksomaitiene2026feeder,
title = {{Feeder- and Drinker-Associated Microbiota Differ from Host-Associated Fecal Microbiota During a Commercial Broiler Production Cycle with Age-Associated Changes in Taxonomic Composition.}},
author = {Jurgita Aksomaitiene and Aleksandr Novoslavskij and Beatrice Kasparaviciene and Snieguole Malakauskiene and Romualdas Sinkevicius and Loreta Serniene},
journal = {Animals : an open access journal from MDPI},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.3390/ani16192987},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42882956},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Feeder- and Drinker-Associated Microbiota Differ from Host-Associated Fecal Microbiota During a Commercial Broiler Production Cycle with Age-Associated Changes in Taxonomic Composition.
AU - Jurgita Aksomaitiene
AU - Aleksandr Novoslavskij
AU - Beatrice Kasparaviciene
AU - Snieguole Malakauskiene
AU - Romualdas Sinkevicius
AU - Loreta Serniene
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/23
JO - Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
DO - 10.3390/ani16192987
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42882956
AB - Broiler chickens are continuously exposed to microorganisms in the production environment, but the relationship between microorganisms on bird-contact surfaces and fecal microbiota remains unclear. In this exploratory observational study, shotgun metagenomic sequencing was used to compare microbial communities in feeder- and drinker-associated surface samples and individual fecal samples during one production cycle in a single commercial system housing Ross 308 broilers. The dataset comprised 22 individual fecal samples collected on days 1, 7, 19, 27, and 39 and four composite feeder- or drinker-associated environmental surface samples collected on days 1, 19, 27, and 39. Taxonomic composition, alpha and beta diversity, differential taxonomic signatures, and genus-level co-abundance patterns were evaluated. Environmental samples had greater richness and were dominated by Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, whereas host-associated fecal samples were dominated by Firmicutes and lactobacilli. Sample type explained 20.0% of variation in Bray-Curtis distances and 15.5% in Binary Jaccard distances (both p = 0.001). Within host-associated samples, Firmicutes increased from 51.4% on day 1 to 93.6% on day 39, while Proteobacteria decreased from 26.5% to 1.4%. Despite these taxonomic changes, host-associated communities did not form statistically distinct clusters by sampling day. Within the investigated production system, host-associated fecal microbial communities differed from those detected on the sampled feeder and drinker surfaces, while the relative abundance of dominant fecal taxa varied across sampling days. These findings are specific to the investigated production system and production cycle.
SN - 2076-2615
ER -