Metabolic and inflammatory linkage of the chicken cecal microbiome to growth performance.

Introduction: Chinese indigenous chicken breeds are widely used as food in China but their slow growth rate and long farming cycle has limited their industrial production.

Methods: In the current study we examined whether the market weights of native chicken breeds were related to specific cecal bacteria, serum metabolites and inflammatory cytokines. We examined cecal bacterial taxa using 16S rDNA analysis along with untargeted serum metabolites and serum inflammatory cytokines.