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Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) Larvae Significantly Change the Microbial Community in Chicken Manure

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Abstract

Using black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae in treatment of livestock manure is a promising technology. In this study, high-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the microbial community in chicken manure before and after treatment with H. illucens larvae. In fresh chicken manure, the most abundant bacterial phylum was Firmicutes (55.58%) followed by Bacteroidetes (24.52%) and then Proteobacteria (12.29%). After treatment of the manure with H. illucens larvae for 15 days, the abundance of Firmicutes increased to 97.72% while that of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria decreased. Concomitantly, the most abundant genera of fungi in chicken manure changed from Kernia (46.19%) and Microascus (17.22%) to Penicillium (46.82%) and Aspergillus (45.22%). Correlation-network analysis showed the existence of strong and complex correlations between the dominant operational taxonomic units (OUT) of bacteria and fungi. While most of these correlations were positive, three specific genera, namely g_norank_f_Bacillaceae, Penicillium, and Aspergillus exhibited negative correlations with the remaining genera. These three genera were highly abundant in the intestines of H. illucens and in chicken manure treated with H. illucens larvae. Based on 16S rDNA microbiome-function predictions, the metabolic pathways associated with sugars, amino acids, and organic pollutants inside the intestinal tract of H. illucens were enriched versus those of the other three groups. In summary, the treatment of chicken manure with H. illucens larvae significantly reduced the microbial diversity, while strongly increasing organic metabolism in the intestinal bacteria. This technology shows the potential for applications in livestock manure treatment.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFD0510402), Major Science and Technology Innovation Project of Shandong Province (No. 2017GGH5129), Key Research and Development project of Shandong Province (No. 2019GSF107094), Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2016YL031), Innovation Team Project for Modern Agricultural Industrious Technology System of Shandong Province (SDAIT-11-10), Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program (No. J18KB077), and Yantai Science and Technology Project (No. 2017NC049).

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  1. Xingxiao Zhang and Junzhe Zhang have contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Ludong University, Yantai, 264025, China

    Xingxiao Zhang, Linlin Jiang, Xin Yu, Hongwei Zhu, Jianlong Zhang, Zhibin Feng & Guozhong Chen

  2. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quality Safety Monitoring and Risk Assessment for Animal Products, Ji’nan, 250022, Shandong, China

    Xingxiao Zhang

  3. Shandong Yantai No. 1 Middle School, Yantai, 264000, China

    Junzhe Zhang

  4. Yantai Key Laboratory of Animal Pathogenetic Microbiology and Immunology, Yantai, 264025, China

    Linlin Jiang, Xin Yu, Hongwei Zhu, Jianlong Zhang, Zhibin Feng & Guozhong Chen

  5. Institute of Agro-Food Science and Technology, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Ji’nan, 250100, China

    Xiang Zhang

  6. College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, ZheJiang University, HangZhou, 310058, China

    Zhijian Zhang

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Contributions

XZ, GC and ZF designed the research; JZ, JZ and XZ performed the experiments; LJ, XY, HZ and GC analyzed data and contributed figures and tables; GC wrote the article; and ZZ advised on the manuscript content and reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Guozhong Chen or Zhijian Zhang.

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Zhang, X., Zhang, J., Jiang, L. et al. Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) Larvae Significantly Change the Microbial Community in Chicken Manure. Curr Microbiol 78, 303–315 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-020-02276-w

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