Fig. 2.

(A) Weight gain by control and Bdellovibrio-treated chickens. Birds were dosed with Bdellovibrio (treated) or buffer (control) at 2 days of age and then weighed daily for the next 28 days. •, control; ○, Bdellovibrio treated. (B) Scatter plot showing counts of bacterial populations from the cecal contents of control (C) and Bdellovibrio-treated (T) chickens. A group of 12 Hy-line brown birds each were challenged orally with 100 μl of approximately 1.9 × 10⁷ PFU/ml of B. bacteriovorus HD100 at 2 days of age. An identical control group was challenged with Ca-HEPES buffer. At 28 days postdose, the birds were sacrificed and targeted bacterial populations were enumerated on selective agar. Abbreviations: blood, total anaerobic count on blood agar incubated under anaerobic conditions; bifido, bifidus selective agar; mitis, mitis salivarius agar; Rogosa, Rogosa agar; chromogenic, chromogenic agar. Each data point represents counts of bacterial populations from the cecum of a single bird. The horizontal lines represent the means for each group.