Antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) have been regarded as emerging contaminants that threaten public health worldwide. Poultry excreta, often used as a fertilizer in agriculture, are a major route for the proliferation and dissemination of ARGs in the environment. The aim of the present study was to assess the potential of dietary palygorskite (Plg) supplementation as nutritional manipulation for the modulation of microbial community structure and the attenuation of ARGs in the cecal contents of broilers fed with chlortetracycline (CTC). In total, 256 one-day-old, mixed-sex, broiler chicks were allocated randomly into a 2 × 2 factorial design of four treatments, which consisted of two levels of CTC (0 or 50 mg/kg) and Plg (0 or 10 g/kg). By employing in vivo feeding and slaughter experiments, after collecting the cecal contents and extracting the total genomic DNA, 16S rRNA V3-V4 hypervariable amplicon pyrosequencing and quantitative PCR-based approaches were used to address the impact of Plg on microbiota and the abundance of ARGs in broilers. The results showed that broilers given a diet supplemented with Plg had greater α-diversity indices including Chao1, phylogenetic diversity tree, and observed-species index calculations, when compared with those without Plg supplementation. Birds given a diet supplemented with Plg had fewer Firmicutes at the phylum level, but a greater abundance of Alistipes at the bacterial genus level. Dietary Plg counteracted the CTC-induced increased abundance of ARGs, among which tet(K) had a pronounced decrease, along with a similar decreased tendency for other measured ARGs and intI1. Overall, the results indicated that Plg supplementation caused pronounced changes in cecal microbial diversity and microbiota community composition of broilers, and effectively reduced ARGs, indicating that Plg supplementation is a potential alternative measure for the attenuation of ARGs in the cecal contents of broilers.

抗生素抗性基因（ARG）被视为威胁全球公共健康的新兴污染物。家禽粪便通常在农业中用作肥料，是环境中ARGs扩散和传播的主要途径。本研究的目的是评估膳食坡缕石（Plg）作为营养操作的潜力，以调节饲喂金霉素（CTC）的肉仔鸡的微生物群落结构和盲肠内ARGs含量。总共将256只1日龄混合性雏鸡随机分配到4种处理方式的2×2因子设计中，其中包括两种水平的CTC（0或50 mg / kg）和Plg（0或0）。 10克/公斤）。通过进行体内喂养和屠宰实验，在收集盲肠内容物并提取总基因组DNA之后，使用16S rRNA V3-V4高变扩增子焦磷酸测序和基于定量PCR的方法来研究Plg对肉鸡的影响以及ARGs在肉鸡中的含量。结果表明，与不添加Plg的肉鸡相比，添加Plg的肉鸡的α多样性指数更高，包括Chao1，系统发育多样性树和观察物种指数计算。饮食补充Plg的鸟类较少 结果表明，与不添加Plg的肉鸡相比，添加Plg的肉鸡的α多样性指数更高，包括Chao1，系统发育多样性树和观察物种指数计算。饮食补充Plg的鸟类较少 结果表明，与不添加Plg的肉鸡相比，添加Plg的肉鸡的α多样性指数更高，包括Chao1，系统发育多样性树和观察物种指数计算。饮食补充Plg的鸟类较少厚壁菌门在门的水平，但更大的丰富Alistipes在细菌属的水平。饮食Plg抵消了CTC诱导的ARG的增加，其中tet（K）明显降低，其他被测ARG和intI1的下降趋势也相似。总体而言，结果表明，添加Plg会引起肉仔鸡盲肠微生物多样性和微生物群落组成的显着变化，并有效降低ARGs，这表明添加Plg可能是降低肉鸡盲肠中ARGs含量的潜在替代方法。