![]() It has been established that gut microbiota consists of a complex consortium of microbial communities and colonizes in the chicken gastrointestinal tract, and the highest and dynamic bacterial diversity is observed in the cecum. Hence, focusing on intestinal physiology is a timely alternative approach for chicken production. Rising concerns of antibiotic resistance have urged many countries to ban antibiotic growth promoters in food animal production. However, excessive and indiscriminate usage emerges antibiotic resistant strains, i.e., Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, and Campylobacter spp., which can be transmitted to humans and threaten public health and food safety. Over the years, antibiotics have been traditionally used as growth promoters in chickens. Infectious agents may damage the intestinal mucosa, initiate inflammation, disrupt gastrointestinal tract physiological mechanisms, and cause infectious and inflammatory diseases. Disruption of gut homeostasis is associated with several pathological states that facilitate to flourish pathogens, causing multiple complications in chickens. ![]() Intestinal inflammation also impairs gut homeostasis. Intestinal inflammation imposes several threats to the chickens, including decreased feed intake, abnormal food digestion and absorption, and low meat production, resulting in reduced growth performance. Our findings suggested that jejunal microbiota could affect chicken growth performance by mitigating intestinal inflammation. Furthermore, transferring fecal microbiota from adult chickens with high body weight into 1-day-old chicks reshaped the jejunal microbiota, mitigated inflammatory response, and improved chicken growth performance. The expression of TLR4, NF-κB, MyD88, and related inflammatory cytokines in the jejunum was significantly upregulated in low body weight chickens, which led to the damage of gut barrier integrity. Serum lipopolysaccharide (LPS) level was significantly higher in low body weight chickens (101.58 ± 5.78 ng/mL) compared with high body weight chickens (85.12 ± 4.79 ng/mL). Conversely, Gram-negative bacteria, such as Comamonas, Acinetobacter, Brucella, Escherichia-Shigella, Thermus, Undibacterium, and Allorhizobium-Neorhizobium-Pararhizobium-Rhizobium were significantly abundant in low body weight chickens. 16S rRNA gene sequencing indicated Gram-positive bacteria, such as Lactobacilli, were the predominant species in high body weight chickens. Seven-weeks-old male and female chickens with the highest or lowest body weights were significantly different in breast and leg muscle indices and average cross-sectional area of muscle cells. However, whether gut microbiota impacts chicken growth performance by lessening intestinal inflammation remains elusive. Accumulated findings established the close relationship between gut microbiota and chicken growth performance. Intestinal inflammation is prevalent in chicken, which results in decreased growth performance and considerable economic losses.
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