Investigating adverse effects of chronic dietary exposure to herbicide glyphosate on zootechnical characteristics and clinical, biochemical and immunological blood parameters in broiler chickens

Although the herbicide glyphosate is widely used globally and considered safe, more evidence of its adverse effects on animals and humans is accumulating. The present investigation was aimed at evaluating the impact of different glyphosate concentrations on zootechnical characteristics and clinical, biochemical and immunological blood parameters in Ross 308 broiler chickens. Four groups were employed, including untreated control and three experimental groups fed diets enriched with glyphosate at doses of 10, 20 and 100 ppm that conformed to 0.5, 1 and 5 maximum residue limits, respectively. The results showed that glyphosate is a stress factor triggering a multifaceted effect on important blood parameters (e.g., white blood cell and phagocytic counts), which was shown for the first time in the experiments involving productive meat-type poultry. It was first revealed that glyphosate-induced changes in blood parameters may be related to a negative impact on the zootechnical characteristics including the digestive tract organ development and body weight gain. The study findings suggested that exposure to glyphosate in the feedstuffs can adversely affect the physiological condition and productivity of broilers.

Metagenomic bacterial community profiles of chicken embryo gastrointestinal tract by using T-RFLP analysis

Thirty microbial phylotypes of microorganisms were found in the gastrointestinal tract of chicken belonging to the Hajseks White breed, and 38 phylotypes were found in the gastrointestinal tract of chicken belonging to the Hajseks Brown breed. The microbiome of the gastrointestinal tract of the chicken embryos of the Hajseks White breed was dominated by the typical representatives of avian intestinal microflora--bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae (47.3%), orders Actinomycetales (13.6%) and Bifidobacteriales (20.6%), and the family Lachnospiraceae (1.1%). The microbiome of the gastrointestinal tract of the chicken embryos of the Hajseks Brown breed was dominated by the pathogenic bacteria of the order Rickettsiales (94.8%). The metagenome of gastrointestinal tract of both breeds also contained a small number of genes of unidentified bacteria.