Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Food and Feed Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #334583
Research Project: Identification of the Ecological Niches and Development of Intervention Strategies to Reduce Pathogenic Foodborne Pathogens in Poultry

Location: Food and Feed Safety Research

Title: The identification of fungi collected from the ceca of commercial poultry

Author
item Byrd Ii, James - Allen
item Caldwell, Denise
item Nisbet, David

Submitted to: Poultry Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/12/2016
Publication Date: 7/1/2017
Publication URL: https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/5852196
Citation: Byrd, J.A., Caldwell, D.Y., Nisbet, D.J. 2017. The identification of fungi collected from the ceca of commercial poultry. Poultry Science. 96(7):2360-2365.

Interpretive Summary: Under normal conditions, fungi or molds are considered nuisance organisms that contribute to allergies or cause disease. The scientific communities are largely unaware of the roles fungi play in normal health of food production animals. Numerous preharvest biological preventatives such as probiotics have shown that beneficial bacteria can play a role in improving gastrointestinal health in food producing animals, but have ignored the impact that fungi may have on gastrointestinal health. The goal of the present study was to record fungi recovered from commercial meat producing and egg producing poultry during normal production. Over 3000 broiler cecal samples were isolated using conventional culture methodology, and over 800 samples were further characterized using an automated DNA testing procedure (rep-PCR) methodology. Over 80 different fungal and yeast genera were identified, and 18 unknown genera were separated using rep-PCR, including: Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., Sporidiobolus spp., and a previously identified uncultured fungus. The results from the present study will provide a normal fungi background genera under commercial conditions and will be a stepping stone for investigating the impact of fungi on the gastrointestinal tract and the health of poultry.

Technical Abstract: Under normal conditions, fungi are ignored unless clinical signs of a disease/syndrome are reported. The scientific communities are largely unaware of the roles fungi play in normal production parameters. Numerous preharvest interventions have demonstrated that beneficial bacteria can play a role in improving production parameters; however, most researchers have ignored the impact that fungi may have on production. The goal of the present study was to record fungi recovered from commercial broiler and layer houses during production. Over 3000 broiler cecal samples were isolated using conventional culture methodology, and over 800 samples were further characterized using an automated repetitive sequence based PCR (rep-PCR) methodology. Over 80 different fungal and yeast genera were identified, and 18 unknown genera were separated using rep-PCR, including: Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., Sporidiobolus spp., and a previously identified uncultured fungus. The results from the present study will provide a normal fungi background genera under commercial conditions and will be a stepping stone for investigating the impact of fungi on the gastrointestinal tract and the health of poultry.