How to measure and manage gut health

PROF. T.A. NIEWOLD, KU LEUVEN, BELGIUM

Gut health is directly linked to performance in all production animals. In his talk at the international seminar hosted by Huvepharma®, Prof. Niewold explained the importance of measuring small intestinal inflammation. There are now non-invasive methods to accurately measure gut health, giving producers information which allows them to make adjustments to the diet in order to optimize gut health and therefore performance.

Gut health is a very important determinant for health and performance in production animals. The small intestinal (SI) innate immune system is central in maintaining gut health. Each intake of feed leads to postprandial (low-grade) SI inflammation, the magnitude of which is mainly related to the caloric value and the glycemic index. If not contained, postprandial inflammation could lead to undesired consequences such as muscle catabolism, inappetite, and predisposition to infections. Therefore, the body has a system to control SI inflammation by the so-called anti-inflammatory nervous reflex.

The gut of production animals is exposed to large amounts of high-energy feed which can overwhelm the anti-inflammatory reflex, leading to production losses. In the past, this was remedied by adding anti-inflammatory compounds to the feed such as antimicrobial growth promoters (AGPs). Increasing restrictions on the use of antibiotics either as AGPs or as therapeutics has led to a great need for alternative compounds. These alternatives should be non-antibiotic and anti-inflammatory in nature.

Compounds can be easily selected in vitro for their pro- or anti-inflammatory properties, and subsequently tested in vivo for performance. In this way, several anti-inflammatory compounds with growth promoting activity were successfully selected and shown to improve SI health. Intestinal health was usually determined in sacrificed animals. Currently, there are several fecal inflammatory biomarkers for the determination of SI health available such as myeloperoxidase (MPO) and pancreatitis-associated protein (PAP). This will allow for easy confirmation of the efficacy of additives and treatments, and for routine non-invasive screening of intestinal health for prevention purposes.