ANIMAL MICROBIOME RESEARCH LABORATORY

The complex community of microbes that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract (microbiota) has gained appreciation by scientists, physicians, and the general population in recent years. The microbiome exhibits broad reaching impacts and plays a role in host nutrition, pathogen colonization resistance, gastrointestinal disease, immune and digestive system regulation, even cardiovascular disease and neurological development and disease. Animal agriculture is about to undergo a transformation in which the microbiome is optimized and engineered rather than repressed by antibiotic use. Animal producers are seeking for alternatives to the antibiotics to maintain healthy, disease resistant animals and a safe food supply to the public. By understanding and promoting the microbiome, we utilize biological controls of unwanted microbiome invaders and promote benefits host-microbe interactions, while minimizing undesirable collateral effects, like antibiotic resistance.

AMR Lab in the News