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The understanding and description of nutritional interventions is important to help develop and understand their use in poultry allowing for the appropriate manipulation of diets to improve poultry health and performance. In this study, we analysed the results of four broiler experiments to characterise consistent changes in the bacterial community structure of the broiler caecum in response to dietary supplementation with a mannan rich fraction (MRF). High throughput sequencing of the V4-V6 regions of the 16 S rRNA gene was carried out to assess the caecal microbial alterations in response to mannan rich fraction (MRF) supplementation in a standard commercial production setting across four separate broiler trials. The datasets from each individual trial were then pooled and analysed for differences between control and MRF supplemented diets at day 35 posthatch. Results showed a trend that Phylum Bacteroidetes was increased and Phylum Firmicutes was decreased across all four trials compared to the control at day 35 posthatch. We then used the random forest bioinformatics approach to identify a highly relevant set of microbial OTU's which are indicative of MRF supplementation in the broiler caecum. Results showed that using this approach to analyse 16 S rRNA gene sequences has allowed us to identify a novel set of mannan sensitive bacterial OTU's in the caecal microbiome. This work has given us thecapability to begin understanding the link between how alterations in the bacterial community composition of the broiler caecal microbiome may influence the phenotypic effects typically associated with MRF supplementation in broilers such as improved FCR, immune modulation and improved body weight. This knowledge will be instrumental in developing future nutritional strategies and will be beneficial to the poultry industry. |