Aging transition of the bacterial community structure in the chick ceca.

The transition of the bacterial community structure and predominant bacteria in the ceca of chicks from hatching to 2 wk of age was investigated using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis with the 16S ribosomal RNA gene, followed by phylogenetic analysis. The results demonstrated that most of the cecal bacterial flora from hatching to a few days old consisted of Escherichia coli (sequence similarity: 100%), and the floral diversity was still low 2 wk posthatch. These findings will help contribute to the development of a novel competitive exclusion product.