The inulin-type fructans are non-digestible oligosaccharides that are fermented in the gastrointestinal tract of farm animals and pets. This review focuses on the various effects of inulin-type fructans in pigs, poultry, calves and companion animals. Effects of the inulin-type fructans on gut microflora, digestion and availability of nutrients, gut morphology, fermentation characteristics and a...

96-99% of the "friendly" or residential microflora of intestinal tract of humans consists of strict anaerobes and only 1-4% of aerobes. Many diseases of the intestine are due to a disturbance in the balance of the microorganisms inhabiting the gut. The treatment of such diseases involves the restoration of the quantity and/or balance of residential microflora in the intestinal tract. It is know...

The human colonic microflora has a central role in health and disease, being unique in its complexity and range of functions. As such, dietary modulation is important for improved gut health, especially during the highly-sensitive stage of infancy. Diet can affect the composition of the gut microflora through the availability of different substrates for bacterial fermentation. Differences in gu...

Executive Summary A recent article about the effects of non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NASs) on gut microflora and on gut and nutritional physiology has profound implications for the current epidemic of obesity and diabetes. NAS use appears to alter gut microbiota in a substantial way that has direct effects on glucose tolerance and the utilization of polysaccharides and sugars in the diet....

Diet, among other environmental and genetic factors, is currently recognised to have an important role in health and disease. There is increasing evidence that the human colonic microbiota can contribute positively towards host nutrition and health. As such, dietary modulation has been proposed as important for improved gut health, especially during the highly sensitive stage of infancy. Differ...

The human gut microbiota plays a significant role in human health through its ability to digest food ingredients and manufacture metabolites. This can be positive or negative for host welfare. Moreover, the microflora plays an active role in host defense whereby colonization resistance affords protection against pathogens. Prebiotics are nondigestible food ingredients that target beneficial com...

1. The influence of the gut microflora on protein synthesis in individual tissues and in the whole body of young chicks was investigated by the large-dose injection of [3H]phenylalanine. 2. Growth of germ-free chicks was significantly better than that of conventional controls. Wet weights of liver, spleen, duodenum, jejunum + ileum and caeca were heavier in conventional birds than in germ-free ...

Starches are important as energy sources for humans and also for their interactions with the gut microflora throughout the digestive tact. Largely, those interactions promote human health. In the mouth, less gelatinised starches may lower risk of cariogensis. In the large bowel, starches which have escaped small intestinal digestion (resistant starch), together with proteins, other undigested c...

Intestinal maturation can be influenced by intrinsic factors (glucocorticoid hormones) and by extrinsic factors (resident microflora); their relative roles in ontogeny of mouse intestinal trehalase expression, a marker of general gut development, and of beta1,4-galactosyltransferase (beta GT), a marker of glycosyltransferase development, were investigated. In conventional (CONV) mice, beta GT a...