Impact of farming practices and diet on chicken microbiomes

Published: May 17, 2024 by FME Lab

Last week, in the frame of the 1st Food System Conference in Torino, Stéphane was pleased to show for the first time the results of the Holoflux egg-to-meat project.

In this project, a consortium of 7 INRAE laboratories collaborated for a very ambitious experimental design aiming at studying the impact of farming practices (claustration versus open field), and therefore the impact of the diet on several chicken microbiomes (Fecal, Caecal …). The project revealed how the different microbiomes are changing (or not) with the diet and how the microbiomes maturate during the longitudinal (age) study from egg-to-meat. During the rest of the conference, Stéphane received a lot of positive feedback from the participants with strong encouragements for publishing the outcome of this study.

HoloGen symposium on microbial meta-community modeling

On October 21, 2026, Julien Tap participated as an invited speaker in the Microbial Meta-Community Modeling symposium, organized by Karoline Faust at the Rega Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium, as part of the HoloGen doctoral network retreat.

Fermented foods at the Fête de la science Paris-Saclay 2026

On October 3–4, 2026, Stéphane Chaillou and Alice Lima took part in the Village des sciences at ENS Paris-Saclay for the Fête de la science, France’s annual science festival. This year’s theme, “Saveurs savantes”, invited visitors to explore the science behind food and flavour.

From “synthetic” to defined microbial communities for clearer terminology

Stéphane Chaillou participated in a joint reflection with a group of international researchers, coordinated by the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), on the terminology used to describe certain microbial communities. The collective of experts proposes replacing the term “synthetic community” (or SynCom), sometimes perceived negatively, with “Defined Microbial Community”.