The microbiome in poultry and livestock: Cutting through the hype and getting to solutions

Authors: Lyte, Joshua

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/9/2024
Publication Date: 10/16/2024
Citation: Lyte, J.M. 2024. The microbiome in poultry and livestock: Cutting through the hype and getting to solutions. Proceedings. Kemin Intestinal Health Symposium, Park City, UT, Oct 15-17, 2024.

Interpretive Summary: The microbiome refers to the collection of bacteria, and other microrganisms in the gastrointestinal tract of animals, including poultry. Specifically, microbiome means both compositional (what type of bacteria are present) as well as functionality (what are the bacteria doing). The microbiome plays significant roles in poultry and livestock resistance to foodborne pathogen carriage as well as myriad other aspects of food animal production. While many associations have been made between the microbiome and outcomes in poultry and livestock, there is a need for more hypothesis-driven microbiome research. The use of function-driven hypotheses (i.e. those that have an evidential basis), to directly explore the relationship between microbiome and the host animal will likely help accelerate the application of microbiome-based solutions to improve poultry and livestock food safety as well as production overall. This symposium addresses the need for greater use of function-driven hypotheses in food animal microbiome research, and highlights paths forward in this research area.

Technical Abstract: The microbiome is associated with virtually all aspects of poultry and livestock production. The use of evidence-based hypotheses that rely on known functional relationships between bacteria and host are needed in this research field, before delving into any putative role for the microbiome. The present symposium discusses one such area of function-driven hypotheses in poultry and livestock, namely microbial endocrinology. The impact of stress on poultry and livestock foodborne pathogen carriage and production traits is well-recognized. Moreover, at the level of the gut stress-related neurochemicals often drive bacterial-host interaction, setting the stage for evidence based changes in the global microbiome. Through the lens of microbial endocrinology, causal relationships can be identified between microbial taxa and the host. Neurochemical-based dialogue occurs between microbial species, as well, adding another functional aspect to the impact of production-relevant stress on the microbiome, and introducing a potential feedback loop from microbiome to host as a result of host stress. Cross-species relevance of microbial endocrinology, from poultry through monogastric and ruminant livestock is highlighted insofar that findings in one food animal species can readily be applied to other species, in order to improve all food animal industry production and food safety.