Fig 5. Ability of 6 selected gut anaerobes to colonise the chicken caecum.

Chicks were orally inoculated with bacterial species as indicated and 7 days later their presence in the caecum in the inoculated and control chickens was determined by sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. Parabacteroides johnsonii, Bacteroides clarus and Megamonas hypermegale efficiently colonised the chicken caecum while the abundance of Blautia producta, Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum and Lactobacillus reuteri in inoculated and control chicks did not differ. Inoculation with the latter three isolates, unlike the former three, did not result in efficient caecum colonisation.