Working toward a better understanding of poultry dysbiosis

A better understanding of the causes of dysbiosis would lead to better flock health management, but poultry health is still lagging advances made in the human sector.

The more light that can be shone on the changes that are leading to dysbiosis, the more precise any management plan can be. (nobeastsofierce | Shutterstock)
The more light that can be shone on the changes that are leading to dysbiosis, the more precise any management plan can be. (nobeastsofierce | Shutterstock)

The term “dysbiosis” is increasingly used in technical and marketing discussions about poultry health, but have you ever thought about what it really means? 

Dysbiosis is defined as “a microbial imbalance or maladaptation on or inside the body” or “a shift in the microbiome.”  We often use “dysbiosis” when talking about gut health and inflammation, and even use it as a pseudo-diagnostic term. The frustrating problem is that dysbiosis is ultimately not well defined. We are left with questions like:

  • What does a balanced microbial population really look like in poultry? 
  • What does a shifting population mean? 
  • Is a specific “good” microbial population always good, regardless of the situation? 

Often, we don’t have any specific answers to these questions beyond a vague idea of dysbiosis, but we also recognize that a clearer understanding of dysbiosis could bring new advances in poultry health and nutrition.  To better understand the term, it is useful to look at what science is learning about dysbiosis broadly, understand that a narrow and specific view of dysbiosis is most helpful, and the key aspects we need to keep in mind when using the term. 

With the recent advances in understanding the microbiome in human and animal studies, what it means to have dysbiosis is becoming clearer, but these insights also demonstrate how far we yet need to go. Most scientists agree that the clearest sign of dysbiosis is a shift in dominance toward a particular group of bacteria, the proteobacteria. 

This large group of bacteria are mainly gram-negative bacteria that produce lipopolysaccharides that may be of concern. Escherichia coli and Salmonella are key members of this group, but there are several beneficial bacteria as well. While it can be an indicator of problems, this shift can also be affected by diet changes, ingredient choices, and the use or removal of antibiotics without any negative impact on the performance of a flock. A diagnosis of “dysbiosis” simply because there are elevated proteobacteria levels is simply not enough to effectively manage poultry gut health.

Value of precision

The breakthroughs in understanding dysbiosis are coming from the ability to get much narrower and detailed information on the types of imbalances that are occurring when tied to specific health issues.  When we define dysbiosis as the presence or absence of a small group or even single bacterial species or function, a diagnosis of dysbiosis becomes much more reasonable.  Current research in non-poultry species is beginning to tie things like diabetes, inflammation, and mental function to a narrowly defined dysbiosis often associated with the absence of a single bacterial species or proliferation of a small group of bacteria.

Dysbiosis defined at this level of detail gives us a clear picture that includes information about where we want to move the microbial communities from, and where we want to move them to. For some interesting human diseases related to dysbiosis, we are now able to both specifically diagnose where we are moving from, and then clearly define an intervention or therapy leading us to a new, reduced state of dysbiosis and treatment of the disease. While these results are exciting, in comparison poultry research and proposed dysbiosis treatments are still in a much earlier stage of understanding.

Dysbiosis is a tricky word in poultry health, seeming to contain more weight and information then it actually does. For anyone dealing with gut health issues in their poultry flocks for any number of reasons, it’s important to go beyond a simple fix for dysbiosis and dig deeper to get much more clarity around specific issues, the specific microbial populations that may be causing problems, and to draw up a clear from-to plan for gut microbial management.

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