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What is ‘gut health’ and how do you quantify/measure it?
In recent years, the term “gut health” has been become an increasing used buzzword, but what does it mean? Is gut health reflected by growth and feed efficiency responses, functional measurements of intestinal permeability, or morphological measurements? It’s time to define what gut health means. Gut health can be defined as the optimal and efficient balance between the assimilation of water and nutrients into the body and the maintenance and rapid restoration of intestinal defense barriers, facilitating optimal health and survival of the host. The objectives of this presentation will be to: (1) further define key components of gut health, (2) review current research approaches and techniques to measure it and disadvantages and limitations of each technique, and (3) discuss how a combination of approaches and models can be used to provide a comprehensive assessment of gut health, with an emphasis on the translation to animal performance and disease resistance.
Keywords:
Gut health
Barrier function
Gastrointestinal system