Colonization patterns of intestinal pioneering microbiota of different broiler breeds and their effects on composition of intestinal mucosal barrier during early life.

Intestinal pioneering microbiota can affect host growth, development, and health via microbial programming. However, the presence of microbial colonization in the intestine of embryonic chickens, development and colonization patterns of intestinal pioneering microbiota of different broiler breeds and their effects on the composition of intestinal mucosal barrier during early life remain unknown. Arbor Acres (AA) chickens exhibiting high growth efficiency traits and Chinese local Tibetan chickens exhibiting high environmental adaptability traits were used as experimental animals to verify the absence of bacterial colonization and a sterile state in embryonic chickens intestine under normal maternal health. During neonatal early stage, jejunal mucosal structure and barrier function of AA chickens with higher growth efficiency were more conducive to digestion and absorption, corresponding to persistently higher microbial maturity, whereas those of Tibetan chickens with lower growth efficiency were more conducive to stress resistance, corresponding to lower microbial maturity. Colonization patterns of intestinal pioneering microbiota were significantly different between the two breeds. The dominant microbiota of AA chickens, such as Erysipelatoclostridium, Hydrogenoanalobacterium and Shuttleworthia, were related to growth and metabolic functions, whereas those of Tibetan chickens, such as Limosilactobacillus, Ligilactobacillus and Prevotella, were related to immune and anti-stress functions. Transplanting intestinal pioneering microbiota of the donor could transfer the abundance of dominant microbiota to the recipient in a symbiotic state. Growth efficiency and adaptability of transplanted AA chickens improved, accompanied by optimized jejunal mucosal structure and function. However, the growth efficiency of transplanted Tibetan chickens was not affected by the modified microbiota diversity. It was suggested that cross-FMT technology achieved inter-breed complementary advantages of high growth efficiency and high adaptability traits of broilers during neonatal early life; the higher maturity of intestinal pioneering microbiota of the recipient, the more growth efficiency of the recipient would be susceptibly affected by transplanting intestinal pioneering microbiota of the donor.