ScienceHearted Center targets poultry gut microbiome, health

The ScienceHearted Center focuses on understanding how the poultry gut microbiome functions in order to learn more about and develop better treatments for emerging pathogens and diseases.

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(image_jungle | istock.com)

The ScienceHearted Center focuses on understanding how the poultry gut microbiome functions in order to learn more about and develop better treatments for emerging pathogens and diseases.

“When you look at any animal, the microbiome affects a whole lot of things that happen within the animal, but the microbiome itself is affected by the environment of the animal,” said Dr. Xandra Smith, director, research and innovation, Arm & Hammer.

For example, in poultry, a pathogen found in one poultry house may not be found in the house next door, even on the same farm.

Antibiotics used to be the standard treatment for most poultry pathogens and diseases, however antibiotic use has sharply fallen out of favor in recent years due to increasing antibiotic resistance and consumer consumers.

In response, many poultry producers have pledged to raise birds’ antibiotic-free or with no antibiotics ever. Finding natural ways to control the poultry gut microbiome could help the industry continue to reduce antibiotic use.

Pathogen genetic sequencing

Decreased antibiotic use led to the reemergence of some poultry diseases. One of the projects The ScienceHearted Center is involved with is performing gene sequencing one of these chronic interrupters, Enterococcus.

“We’ve been collecting the ones that have been coming up over the past year and we’re going to compare them to the ones that we sequenced four or five years ago to see if these pathogens are becoming more virulent or if there’s something that’s different between then and now,” she explained.

Targeted treatments against specific pathogens

Probiotic treatments use good bacteria from the genus Bacillus to target specific pathogens in poultry. 

Scientists know which types of bacilli are more effective against a pathogen strain. This leads to the development of targeted treatments.

“With these new diseases coming in, we’re looking to see if Streptococcus and Enterococcus are susceptible to the bacillus we already have or do we need to find new bacilli that would be effective,” Smith said.

“We really have to understand the disease progression, even before you see symptoms, so that we can get a targeted solution.”

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