Culturomics study of the broiler cecal microbiome published in Poultry Science

Manhong Wang’s paper maps the cultivable microbiota of broiler chicken ceca and enables targeted isolation of beneficial bacteria — a foundation for next-generation probiotics.

Our culturomics study, led by Ph.D. student Manhong Wang, is out in Poultry Science:

Wang, M., Ye, X., Hsu, C.Y., Fugate, H., Zhang, X., Adhikari, P.A., Fan, P., Elliott, K., Macklin, K., & Zhang, L. (2026). Application of culturomics to explore the cultivable microbiota and enable targeted bacterial isolation from the ceca of broiler chickens. Poultry Science, 105(4), 106527. DOI

The work systematically cultures the broiler cecal microbiome — turning “unculturable” community members into isolates we can actually study and deploy. It is a key step toward identifying probiotic candidates that improve poultry health and reduce pathogen colonization.