"All disease begins in the gut"
Hippocrates, 460-370 BC

Welcome to Gut Health Consultancy

 We work with clients to implement cost-effective animal production strategies that promote gut health and enable antibiotics to be used more judiciously. In addition, we work with companies to evaluate their additives for commercial application and market positioning. We have years of experience and fundamental understanding in this area, having worked in technical roles within animal health companies, and in actual live production. We work discreetly with clients and companies to achieve their goals in a cost-effective manner.
​ Contact us today to help achieve your goals.   
What we do​

​It has long been recognised that the intestine plays a critical role in health and disease. Gut health is a term that is frequently used to portray the state of the intestine and has become widely used in the context of research activities relating to antibiotic growth promoter (AGP) replacement. 

Latest publications​​​​

1. Broom, L. J., and Kogut, M. H. 2018. Gut immunity: its development and reasons and opportunities for modulation in monogastric production animals. Animal Health Research Reviews, doi.org/10.1017/S1466252318000026
   
2. Kogut, M. H., Genovese, K. J., Swaggerty, C. L., He, H., and Broom, L. J. 2018. Inflammatory phenotypes in the intestine of poultry: not all inflammation is created equal. Poultry Science, doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey087 
3. Broom, L. J. 2018. Gut barrier function: Effects of (antibiotic) growth promoters on key barrier components and associations with growth performance. Poultry Science, doi.org/10.3382/ps/pey021​
4. Broom, L. J., and Kogut, M. H. 2017. Inflammation: friend or foe for animal production? Poultry Science, 97, 510-514​ doi.org/10.3382/ps/pex314 ​
5. Broom, L. J. 2017. The sub-inhibitory theory for antibiotic growth promoters. Poultry Science, 96, 3104-3108​ doi.org/10.3382/ps/pex114 ​

Research article of the week

Immunosuppression, rather than uncontrolled inflammatory processes, leads to chronic inflammation/diseases? Challenging existing dogmas.

Two recent papers challenge existing beliefs regarding inflammation-related disorders. Ulcerative colitis is characterised by inflammation of the colonic mucosa and management attempts generally focus on Immunosuppressive therapies, but most patients still show disease progression. In recent work, Sham et al. (2018) revealed that activating, rather than suppressing, mucosal immune function through inactivated pathogenic E. coli administration reduced mucosal pathology and improved clinical symptoms. Similarly, fibrosis, cancer and autoimmunity, arising from particle exposure, have been linked with uncontrolled inflammation but a growing number of studies report that exaggerated and persistent immunosuppression reduces immune surveillance of tumour cells and microorganisms (Huaux, 2018). These findings encourage review of existing paradigms and objective consideration of less orthodox strategies.  
​Sham et al., 2018; Frontiers in Immunology, doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2018.02211 
Huaux, 2018; Frontiers in Immunology, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.02364/abstract

• See more research here Recent research

What do we mean by gut health?

Gut health is a term that is often used but is typically not well defined. Gut health can be defined as a term to describe the functioning of the intestinal immune (including barrier function) and metabolic systems of an animal.  ​

Why the focus on gut health?

For many years, AGPs were seen as the gold standard of feed additives used to promote animal health, welfare and productivity. Even if fed at sub-therapeutic concentrations, AGPs are thought to enhance gut health through modulation of the intestinal microbiota and function, and immune response, potentially including direct anti-inflammatory effects. However, the use of AGPs is rapidly losing acceptance across the world due to concerns about antibiotic resistant bacteria. Reduced use of AGPs invariably compromises gut health, leading to greater disease problems and lost productivity. ​

The intestine and the immune system

It is estimated that approximately 70% of an animal's immune system is located in, or linked, to the intestine. The intestine plays an essential role in enabling the digestion and absorption of nutrients, while preventing the passage of undesirable foreign material (e.g. microbes) from the external environment. The clearest demonstration of the relationship between the gut microbiota and the intestine is that germ-free animals have underdeveloped mucosal immunological tissues compared to conventional animals (Berg and Savage, 1975). Once mucosal barriers have been breached, foreign material will first encounter and be detected by intraepithelial leukocytes, which initiates a pro-inflammatory immune response. The pro-inflammatory, acute phase response is considered to have the greatest metabolic cost and leads to muscle catabolism and suppressed feed intake, and thus reduced growth and feed conversion efficiency.   

The optimum robustness of the innate immune response to prevent disease and promote maximal animal performance remains unclear. There is evidence that breeding for greater, more efficient, productive parameters has resulted in animals investing less in immune tissue and competence, and thus these animals may be more susceptible to pathogen challenge and disease (Van der Most et al., 2010). However, some pathogens (e.g. Eimeria) are associated with enhancing anti-inflammatory and/or suppressing pro-inflammatory mediators, which suggests that dampening the pro-inflammatory response is a strategy used by at least some pathogens to circumvent the immune system (Arendt et al., 2016). In the absence of AGPs, a much better understanding of the intestinal environment, immune system and host metabolism are imperative. Understanding, and appropriately applying, feed additives and strategies that truly promote gut health, animal welfare and productivity remains essential.