Dear Colleagues,

The newborn gastrointestinal tract is rapidly colonized by a complex microbial community, whose profound and lifelong impact on host health and performance is becoming increasingly clear. Understanding the factors that shape the early community during the first weeks of life is critical to gain insight into how successional changes in the microbiome influence the development of gastrointestinal and metabolic functions. Any manipulation of the early gut microbiota development has life-long consequences for the host, affecting performance and production efficiency of livestock animals. The type of diet, including mother’s diet, early in life is essential for the establishment of a stable commensal microbiota, directing the intricate cross-talk between microbes and pathobionts and the host. To date, different approaches have been used for early-life manipulation to increase beneficial gut bacterial populations with the goal to improve health and feed efficiency, including beneficial microbes, prebiotics, phytobiotics and, of late, fecal microbiota transplants in pigs, poultry and ruminants. Disturbance of the early-life development of the gut microbiota in farm animals, in turn, is achieved fairly easily and unavoidable as a collateral effect when common strategies to prevent bacterial diseases are applied on farms, such as early-life administration of antibiotics.

I invite you to submit original research papers to this Special Issue “Gut microbiota development in farm animals” that address the development and early-life manipulation of the gut microbiota, short- and long-term effects on microbial progression, gut microbiota–host interactions, and performance-related traits in monogastric and ruminant farm animals.

Prof. Dr. Barbara U. Metzler-Zebeli
Guest Editor

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• Gut Microbiota Development in Farm Animals 2.0 in Microorganisms (2 articles)