The Functionality of the Gastrointestinal Microbiome in Non-human Animals

Overview

Journal Microbiome

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialties Genetics
Microbiology

Date 2015 Nov 11

PMID 26552373

Citations 81

Authors

Irene Hanning

Sandra Diaz-Sanchez

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Due to the significance of the microbiome on human health, much of the current data available regarding microbiome functionality is centered on human medicine. For agriculturally important taxa, the functionality of gastrointestinal bacteria has been studied with the primary goals of improving animal health and production performance. With respect to cattle, the digestive functions of bacteria in cattle are unarguably critical to digestion and positively impact production performance. Conversely, some research suggests that the gastrointestinal microbiome in chickens competes with the host for nutrients and produces toxins that can harm the host resulting in decreased growth efficiency. Concerning many other species including reptiles and cetaceans, some cataloging of fecal bacteria has been conducted, but the functionality within the host remains ambiguous. These taxa could provide interesting gastrointestinal insight into functionality and symbiosis considering the extreme feeding regimes (snakes), highly specialized diets (vampire bats), and living environments (polar bears), which warrants further exploration.

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