Associations between chicken farm environmental exposure and human surface microbiota and metabolite profiles: an exploratory pilot study

Chicken farms release various airborne pollutants that threaten farm workers’ occupational health, while the comprehensive impacts of chicken farm environmental exposures on human surface bacterial and metabolic homeostasis remain unclear. The niche-specific bacterial-metabolic interactions that are critical for host health regulation require systematic exploration. Three chicken farms with differential environmental conditions were selected, and 12 farm workers were recruited. Key atmospheric environmental parameters were monitored. 16S rRNA gene sequencing and non-targeted metabolomic analyses were performed to profile bacterial communities and metabolic characteristics of farm worker’ skin, oral, and nasal niches. Multiple bioinformatic and statistical analyses were adopted to explore niche-specific microecological variations and their correlations with environmental factors. Chicken farm environmental differences correlated with significant niche-specific microbial variations. Skin and nasal bacteria exhibited prominent farm-specific compositional divergence, whereas oral bacteria remained stable. Bacterial α diversity of nasal niche was markedly lower than that of skin and oral niches. Particulate matters, temperature and humidity were closely correlated with commensal bacterial taxa. Breeding exposures were statistically associated with altered metabolic pathways in skin and oral niches, while nasal metabolic characteristics remained relatively stable across different farms. Unique microbiota-metabolite interactions were identified, with skin bacteria specifically associated with tryptophan metabolism. This exploratory pilot study identified niche-specific correlational patterns between chicken farm environmental exposures and variations in human surface bacterial and metabolic profiles. The skin microecology exhibited the strongest correlational signal with farm-environment differences among the three surface niches. This study provided preliminary microbiota-metabolite observational evidence supporting occupational health risk assessment for chicken farm workers, while acknowledging inherent limitations of this cross-sectional pilot investigation.