The Microflora of Poultry House Litter and Droppings

A SERIES of tests on the relationship of litter management to the vitamin B12 requirements of growing chicks made it desirable to study the microflora of the litter and droppings of these test chicks to determine the possible relationships to vitamin B12 content. Kern (1897) investigated the microflora of the digestive tract of the chicken, other gallinaceous fowl and several of the common wild birds. He and other early investigators, King (1905) and Gage (1911) agreed that Escherichia coli and Aerobacter aerogenes are the predominant organisms of the intestinal flora. Other types of microorganisms commonly found in the chicken’s intestines by these workers were: lactobacilli, micrococci, pseudo-monads, bacilli, sarcinae, clostridia, and yeasts. A more recent study of the intestinal microflora of hens as influenced by various carbohydrates in a biotin-deficient ration was made by Johansson, Sarles and Shapiro (1948). Escherichia coli and E. communior were found to be the predominating . . .