Caecal microbiota could effectively increase chicken growth performance by regulating fat metabolism

Summary It has been established that gut microbiota influences chicken growth performance and fat metabolism. However, whether gut microbiota affects chicken growth performance by regulating fat metabolism remains unclear. Therefore, seven‐week‐old chickens with high or low body weight were used in the present study. There were significant differences in body weight, breast and leg muscle indices, and cross‐sectional area of muscle cells, suggesting different growth performance. The relative abundance of gut microbiota in the caecal contents at the genus level was compared by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results of LEfSe indicated that high body weight chickens contained Microbacterium and Sphingomonas more abundantly (P