Early‐life prophylactic antibiotic treatment disturbs the stability of the gut microbiota and increases susceptibility to H9N2 AIV in chicks
Abstract
Background Antibiotics are widely used for prophylactic therapy and for improving the growth performance
of chicken. The problem of bacterial drug resistance caused by antibiotic abuse has previously attracted extensive
attention; however, the influence of early-day use of prophylactic antibiotics on the gut microflora and on the disease
resistance ability in chicks has not been explored. Here, we comprehensively evaluate the growth performance,
gut microbial dynamics, level of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the gut microbial community, and resistance
to H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV) in chickens following long-term and short-term early-day prophylactic antibiotic
treatment.
Results Unexpectedly, long-term prophylactic enrofloxacin treatment slowed the growth rate of chickens, whereas
short-term antibiotics treatments were found to increase the growth rate, but these changes were not statistically
significant. Strikingly, expansions of Escherichia-Shigella populations were observed in early-life prophylactic antibi-
otics-treated groups of chickens, which is in contrast to the general perception that antibiotics should control their
pathogenicity in chicks. The gut microbiota composition of chickens treated long term with antibiotics or received
early-day antibiotics treatment tend to be more dramatically disturbed compared to the gut microbiome of chickens
treated with antibiotics for a short term at a later date, especially after H9N2 AIV infection.
Conclusions Our data provide evidence that early-day and long-term antibiotic treatments have a more adverse
effect on the intestinal microbiome of chickens, compared to short-term late age antibiotic treatment. Furthermore,
our metagenomic data reveal that both long-term and short-term antibiotic treatment increase the relative abun-
dance of ARGs. Our findings highlight the adverse effects of prophylactic antibiotic treatment and provide a theoreti-
cal basis for the cautious administration of antibiotics in food-producing animal management.
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