WHAT IS GUT HEALTH?
Enhancing the intestinal health of pigs has become a priority for the porcine sector, since it allows to improve their production performance, minimizing production costs and achieving the highest possible level of Animal Welfare that is accepted by society.
Over the past few years there has been an increase in the number of studies and references to what we call “Gut Health“.
The definition of Gut Health will depend on who we ask and what circumstance or factor we refer to:
If we want to think that the best intestinal health is the one we find in nature, in wild animals, this will depend on the moment we choose to determine it. For example, we can evaluate it in a moment of abundant food, as it is the case of autumn season for the Iberian pigs, or during the cold winter with snow and few resources in the Arctic tundra for the few wild boars that live there at that time.
If we ask veterinarians, they will most likely refer to “the absence of digestive pathologies that hinder the development of the animal in question“, in this case, the piglet.
If we ask nutritionists, they will answer that intestinal health will be that state of the animal in which the digestive functions are developed with total normality. But we have to define what is normal.
The scientists will reply that they do not yet know, that more research and testing is needed.
As animal production technicians we could use Pietro Celi‘s definition: “A stationary state where the microbiome and the intestinal tract exist in symbiotic equilibrium and where the animal’s welfare and performance are not limited by intestinal dysfunction”.
CRITERIA FOR MEASURING GUT HEALTH
Bischoff proposes 5 criteria to measure gastrointestinal health:
