An In Vivo Poultry Model to Study the Effect of Growth Promoters in Resistance to Human Antibiotics in Mixed Bacterial Populations

Using chickens as an in vivo model, to determine whether (i) mixed intestinal bacterial populations, including two main anaerobic groups (bacteroides and clostridia), and three facultative anaerobic groups (lactobacilli, enterococci and E. coli) present in the gut flora, will develop resistance to human antibiotics, and (ii) how any resistance to antibiotics is influenced by either, inter-reaction between the bacterial groups, or by shifts in number or types within the bacterial groups or population in the chicken intestinal tract, following exposure to presently used growth promoters.