Abstract: A total of 360 one- day- old female broiler chickens of the Arber Acres strain were randomly assigned to 3 groups，fed with iso- energy and iso- nitrogen diets containing corn，wheat or rice as sole starch source， respec- tively， for 28 days．The technique of terminal- restriction fragment length polymorphism(T- RFLP) was used to evalu- ate the effects of dietary types on intestinal microbial community diversity of broiler chickens．The results showed that the microflora represented by the restricted fragments of T- RF160，T- RF253 and T- RF292 were the dominant bacterial communities in duodenum，jejunum and ileum of broiler chickens．However，the dominance degree of flora represented by the restricted fragments of T- RF253 and T- RF292 in broiler chickens fed with rice diet was slightly lower than that of birds fed with corn diet and wheat diet．The profile and content of dominant colonies presented larger difference between cecum and small intestine．The different diets had no obvious significance on Shannon- weiner index，Simpson index and Evenness index of intestinal microflora in broiler chickens(P ＞ 0． 05)．There was a trend of higher degree of microbial community diversity and less dominant population in rice diet group than that in corn diet group and wheat diet group．With the intestinal segment passing towards the back，microbe species in il- eum and cecum were richer than that in duodenum and jejunum，and gradually tended to stabilization．This revealed that the microbial community structure among different intestinal segments had great difference，and the dietary grain types had a certain degree of influence on intestinal microbial community profile and diversity in broiler chickens．

Key words: T- RFLP, Grain type, Broiler chicken, Microbial community

CLC Number: 

• S851.3