Egg Production in Poultry Farming Is Improved by Probiotic Bacteria Peralta-Sánchez, Juan Manuel Martín Platero, Antonio Manuel Ariza Romero, Juan José Rabelo Ruiz, Miguel Zurita González, María Jesús Baños, Alberto Rodríguez Ruano, Sonia Maqueda Abreu, Mercedes Valdivia Martínez, Dolores Eva Martínez Bueno, Manuel Bacterial community Egg production Enterococcus faecalis UGRA10 High-throughput sequencing Laying hens Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most serious threats for human health in the near future. Livestock has played an important role in the appearance of antibioticresistant bacteria, intestinal dysbiosis in farming animals, or the spread of AMR among pathogenic bacteria of human concern. The development of alternatives like probiotics is focused on maintaining or improving production levels while diminishing these negative effects of antibiotics. To this end, we supplied the potential probiotic Enterococcus faecalis UGRA10 in the diet of laying hens at a final concentration of 108 Colony Forming Units per gram (CFU/g) of fodder. Its effects have been analyzed by: (i) investigating the response of the ileum and caecum microbiome; and (ii) analyzing the outcome on eggs production. During the second half of the experimental period (40 to 76 days), hens fed E. faecalis UGRA10 maintained egg production, while control animals dropped egg production. Supplementation diet with E. faecalis UGRA10 significantly increased ileum and caecum bacterial diversity (higher bacterial operational taxonomic unit richness and Faith’s diversity index) of laying hens, with animals fed the same diet showing a higher similarity in microbial composition. These results point out to the beneficial effects of E. faecalis UGRA10 in egg production. Future experiments are necessary to unveil the underlying mechanisms that mediate the positive response of animals to this treatment. 2020-05-13T11:57:46Z 2020-05-13T11:57:46Z 2019-05-24 journal article Peralta-Sánchez JM, Martín-Platero AM, Ariza-Romero JJ, Rabelo-Ruiz M, Zurita-González MJ, Baños A, Rodríguez-Ruano SM, Maqueda M, Valdivia E and Martínez-Bueno M (2019) Egg Production in Poultry Farming Is Improved by Probiotic Bacteria. Front. Microbiol. 10:1042. http://hdl.handle.net/10481/62043 10.3389/fmicb.2019.01042 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ open access Atribución 3.0 España Frontiers in Media