Precision microbiome modulation can unlock new levels of poultry production

Modulation of the taxonomy and function of the enteric microbiome of poultry has considerable potential to mitigate risks associated with chronic and acute pathologies, to enhance sustainability, and to improve the nutrition and health status of the bird. However, although the intestinal microbiota can create serious issues for bird productivity, it is also an important positive contributor in areas such as immune maturation, gut development, fibre metabolism, feed passage rate, nitrogen cycling and gut barrier function. Thus, modulation of the microbiome must be maximally precise to elicit desirable changes without unintended collateral damage.

Historically, modulation of the intestinal microbiota has been rather imprecise. This is associated with both a lack of specialty additives capable of precisely modulating specific features within the microbiome, and a lack of tools to measure such effects. With the increasing democratisation of technologies such as whole genome sequencing and semi-automated bioinformatics pipelines, more data are now available to establish clear host/microbiome interaction. Furthermore, next-generation microbial modulators are being developed that have a more targeted effects such that desirable phenotypes can be induced with less risk of unintended negative consequences. This combination of data-led microbiome/host interaction, and gradual replacement of broad-spectrum imprecise additives, will lead to more consistent benefits for poultry producers, encourage the displacement of antibiotics, and accelerate the reduction in the abundance of antibiotic-resistant genes on farm.

Precision biotics

Precision biotics are a new class of glycan-based products from dsm-firmenich that precisely modulate specific metabolic pathways in the microbiome to benefit the animal and its environment. Precision biotics have been shown to improve animal nutrition, animal health, behaviour, welfare, and sustainability.

The glycans offered by dsm-firmenich are not found naturally. They have been synthesized systematically using various monomeric sugars and condensation reactions with catalysts, and then screened ex vivo and in vivo for a very specific structure and composition based on their ability to induce particular functional effects in the microbiome while minimizing any unintended collateral damage. This is achieved using next-generation sequencing, metabolomics and AI tools which can all be used to fine-tune the glycan structure to, for example, increase production of a secondary metabolite, or enrich a pathway involved in short-chain fatty acid production.

The microbiome responds to its environment

The microbiome can synthesize, up- and down-regulate production of hundreds of extra-cellular enzymes in response to the surrounding environment. It is this function that the dsm-firmenich glycan platform leverages. Figure 1 illustrates how this works.

As glycans enter the intestinal tract, they are detected by the glycan receptors on the surface of bacteria and other members of the microbial community. This detection induces a change in the enzyme expression in the microbiome which confers the benefits mentioned above. For example, glycans can be used to increase butyrate production without changing fractional synthesis rates of the other short-chain fatty acids.

In a meta-analysis of 19 separate broiler trials, Walsh et al. (2021; Figure 2) showed that glycans with a different chemical structure have fundamentally different effects in vivo. Glycan MMM1 was selected based on a capacity to induce an increase in the production of short-chain fatty acids by the enteric microbiome. Glycan MMM2 was developed to also include precision modulation of pathways related to amino acid degradation and amine metabolism, reducing the likelihood that such pathways would be negatively impacted by the modulation of carbohydrate fermentation i.e. ‘microbial domestication’.

While both glycans were able to reduce FCR by 1-2 points with an 80% success rate, the precision biotic MMM2 was able to deliver additional FCR improvements more consistently, demonstrating the value of engineering glycans with specific functional effects across key microbial pathways.

Conclusions

Next-generation sequencing and improvements in omics techniques are unlocking new levels of understanding about the microbiome and how it interacts with the host.

In the future, feed additives will be engineered to be more precise, applied in a more personalised way, and will come with associated services that will help producers build their own unique approach to optimizing their business.