Date / Heure : Mercredi, 11 juin 2025 à 09h00

Lieu : Local 2135, 3200 Avenue Sicotte

Titre de la thèse : The Study of Early Life Microbiota Manipulation in Chickens

Résumé : 

Over the past decades, rising chicken consumption and increasing regulatory and welfare concerns have intensified the need for sustainable poultry production strategies. The chicken intestinal microbiota plays a central role in health and feed efficiency, yet its manipulation remains poorly understood. This research program aimed to study strategies to modulate the intestinal microbiota of broiler chicks from hatch. In the first study, early-life inoculation with caecal contents from either organic or conventional donors led to stable long-term colonization. Organic inocula fostered higher microbial diversity, though their impact on immune modulation was limited. The second study employed long-read sequencing to classify donor microbiota at the species level, offering improved taxonomic resolution compared to traditional V4 region-based approaches. The third study involved selectively culturing caecal contents from organic hens, resulting in the isolation of eight bacterial species of interest, six of which successfully colonized the chick caeca when administered at hatch. Overall, these findings highlight the potential of early microbial intervention to support intestinal health in poultry and provide a foundation for development of safe, locally adapted probiotics. Future efforts will focus on genomic characterization and assessing the performance benefits of these strains.

Jury : 

• Présidente-rapporteuse : Maud de Lagarde
• Directeur : Marcio Costa
• Codirectrice : Martine Boulianne
• Membre du jury : Alexandre Thibodeau
• Examinateur externe : Khaled Abdelaziz

Lien Zoom :  https://umontreal.zoom.us/j/84697729481?pwd=q3bXRa7P54yy2Km25OL2d8vhUdQExp.1

ID de réunion: 846 9772 9481

Code secret: 622283

Mots-clés : Chicken, 16S rRNA, Selective culture, Caecal content transplant, Bioinformatics, Probiotic