Interspecies transmission of fecal microbiota can serve as an indicator for (indirect) contact between domestic and wild animals to assess risks of pathogen transmission, e.g., avian influenza. Here, we investigated whether oral inoculation of laying hens with feces of wild ducks (mallards, Anas platyrhynchos) resulted in a hen fecal microbiome that was detectably altered on community parameters or relative abundances of individual genera. To distinguish between effects of the duck inoculum and effects of the inoculation procedure, we compared the fecal microbiomes of adult laying hens resulting from 3 treatments: inoculation with wild duck feces (duck), inoculation with chicken feces (auto), and a negative control group with no treatment. We collected cloacal swabs from 7 hens per treatment before (day 0), and 2 and 7 D after inoculation, and performed 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. No distinguishable effect of inoculation with duck feces on microbiome community (alpha and beta diversity) was found compared to auto or control treatments. At the individual taxonomic level, the relative abundance of the genus Alistipes (phylum Bacteroidetes) was significantly higher in the inoculated treatments (auto and duck) compared to the control 2 D after inoculation. Seven days after inoculation, the relative abundance of Alistipes had increased in the control and no effect was found anymore across treatments. These effects might be explained by the perturbation of the hen's microbiome caused by the inoculation procedure itself, or by intrinsic temporal variation in the hen's microbiome. This experiment shows that a single inoculation of fecal microbiota from duck feces to laying hens did not cause a measurable alteration of the gut microbiome community. Furthermore, the temporary change in relative abundance for Alistipes could not be attributed to the duck feces inoculation. These outcomes suggest that the fecal microbiome of adult laying hens may not be a useful indicator for detection of single oral exposure to wild duck feces.

中文翻译：

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经口接种野鸭粪便后，蛋鸡粪便微生物组的变化有限。

粪便微生物群的种间传播可以作为家畜和野生动物之间（间接）接触的指标，以评估病原体传播的风险，例如禽流感。在这里，我们调查了用野鸭（绿头鸭，Anas platyrhynchos）的粪便给蛋鸡口服接种是否会导致母鸡粪便微生物组在群落参数或单个属的相对丰度上发生可检测的改变。为了区分鸭接种的影响和接种程序的影响，我们比较了由 3 种处理产生的成年蛋鸡的粪便微生物组：接种野鸭粪便（鸭）、接种鸡粪便（自动）和阴性对照不治疗组。我们在每次处理前（第 0 天）和接种后 2 天和 7 天从 7 只母鸡身上收集泄殖腔拭子，并进行了 16S rRNA 扩增子测序。与自动或对照处理相比，未发现接种鸭粪对微生物群落（α和β多样性）有明显影响。在个体分类水平上，与接种后 2 天的对照相比，接种处理（自动和鸭）中 Alistipes 属（拟杆菌门）的相对丰度显着更高。接种 7 天后，Alistipes 的相对丰度在对照组中有所增加，并且在处理中不再发现任何影响。这些影响可能是由接种程序本身引起的母鸡微生物组的扰动或母鸡微生物组的内在时间变化来解释的。该实验表明，从鸭粪到蛋鸡的粪便微生物群的单次接种不会引起肠道微生物群落的可测量的改变。此外，Alistipes 相对丰度的暂时变化不能归因于鸭粪接种。这些结果表明，成年蛋鸡的粪便微生物组可能不是检测单次口腔暴露于野鸭粪便的有用指标。