The Intestinal Microflora of Hens as Influenced by Various Carbohydrates in a Biotin-deficient Ration

The chicken is an animal of great economic importance and is widely used in the assay of certain vitamins, but little is known about its intestinal flora. The first study of the microbial flora of the chicken's intestinal tract was con-ducted by Kern (1897). His investigations embraced not only the chicken and other gallinaceous birds, but many of the common wild birds. Other work on the microflora of chickens has been reported by Rahner (1901), King (1905), Gage (1911), Menes and Rochlin (1929), and Emmel (1930). All of these workers agreed that Escherichia coli and Aerobacter aerogenes made up the greatest proportion of the intestinal flora. Other types of microorganisms commonly found in the chicken's intestines by these workers were lactobacilli, micrococci, pseudomonads, bacilli, sarcinae, clostridia (in two instances), and yeasts. Un-fortunately, none of these studies was quantitative, and some were not too exact from a qualitative standpoint. The type of dietary carbohydrate has a marked effect on the intestinal flora of animals. Early studies on the subject are well reviewed by Rettger and