Research advances in livestock digestive tract microbiome

Abstract:

The livestock digestive tract is colonized by a large number of microbes, which not only affect the digestion and absorption of nutrients, but also play an important role in the regulation of the animal immunity, growth, and development. The study of livestock digestive tract microbiome is a hot research field worldwide, and a series of important achievements have been made. Understanding the structure and function digestive tract microbiome in the animals will lay a theoretical foundation for manipulation and utilization of gut microbes to increase production performance, improve gastrointestinal health, and thus promote a green and healthy livestock industry. In this review, we summarized and analyzed the recent achievements on the structure and function of the digestive tract microbial community in four representative farm animals (cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens). We also discussed future research directions in this field.