New book highlights importance of intestinal health

The publication, edited by Theo Niewold and published by Wageningen Academic Publishers, looks at the key to maximise growth performance in livestock; intestinal health.

“Livestock production is changing worldwide. The ban on antibiotic growth promoters in Europe, the shift of animal production centres to Brazil or Eastern Europe, increase in demand for traceability and natural production, and the emergence of new diseases, are all forcing livestock producers to adapt to new husbandry, management, nutrition and healthcare techniques. Veterinarians and producers therefore look for alternatives to maintain intestinal health and maximise animal performance, whilst still complying with increasingly stringent (EU) legislation”, the publisher explains.

The book discusses the current infectious and non-infectious challenges as well as the complex interaction between innate, cellular and humoral immunity and performance. Readers can also learn more about the problems that this complexity poses concerning the identification of important factors for intestinal health. Also new approaches such as the development of validated biomarkers, the application of ‘omics’ techniques and systems biology are reviewed.

The table of contents and the Open Access chapter can be downloaded here.