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Impacts of Excreta Exposure and Age on Ileal Microbial Communities, Intestinal Permeability, and Corticosterone in Hens Housed in Enriched Colonies and Cage-Free Housing Systems

Authors :
Benjamin J. Altendorf
Chiron J. Anderson
Isabella von Seggern
Maddison L. Wiersema
Stephan Schmitz-Esser
Dawn A. Koltes
Source :
Poultry, Vol 3, Iss 3, Pp 267-283 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2024.

Abstract

To tease apart differences between conventional cage (CC) and cage-free (CF) housing systems, this study focuses on the effects of excreta exposure and age by comparing microbial communities, intestinal permeability, and corticosterone in hens in enriched colonies (EC) and CF housing systems during early- and late-lay. Hens were randomly selected from two rooms of CF (n = 20) and EC (n = 20) at 35 and 76 weeks of age. One hour following an oral gavage of fluorescein isothiocyanate dextran (FITC-D), hens were euthanized, and ileal contents and blood were collected. Serum FITC-D using a fluorescent spectrophotometer and corticosterone using a commercial competitive ELISA kit were analyzed. Following DNA isolation from the ileum contents, the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced. Sequence data were filtered in Mothur v1.43.0, followed by de novo operational taxonomic unit (OTU) clustering and classifying with the SILVA SSU v138 reference database. Serum FITC-D was altered by housing type, age of hens, and the interaction between housing type and age of hens (p < 0.001), with 76-week-old hens housed in EC having the highest FITC-D. Corticosterone increased with age (p = 0.023). Microbial community diversity measurements favored hens housed in the CF housing system as ileal contents tended to have increased species evenness (p = 0.008) and greater alpha diversity (p = 0.006). The majority of the over-representation of OTUs were associated with peak lay.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
26741164
Volume :
3
Issue :
3
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Poultry
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.44f615ac044c8b9a7d1a8e62d4ff3d
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/poultry3030020