ONE HEALTH: Research, Development and Application of Novel Probiotics and Prebiotics in Human and Animal Health

Description

The concept of One Health is not new and perhaps has even enjoyed stronger endorsement and support in past decades prior to the advent of clinical specialization in human and veterinary medicine. The microorganisms, that exist in every corner of the world, including the animal body, have enormous impacts on their host. The gastrointestinal tract is the primary microbial habitat in humans and animals. The most well known strategies to modulate the composition of the intestinal microbiota are the dietary use of functional foods and supplements. Functional foods have become part of the daily diet and are demonstrated to have several health benefits beyond the nutritional effects. The most important and frequently used functional food compounds are probiotics and prebiotics. Moreover, with an already healthy image, dairy products appear to be an excellent mean for inventing nutritious foods. Such probiotic and prebiotic dairy foods beneficially affect the host by improving survival and implantation of live microbial dietary supplements in the gastrointestinal microbiota, by selectively stimulating the growth or activating the catabolism of one or a limited number of health-promoting bacteria in the intestinal tract, and by improving the gastrointestinal tract’s microbial balance. The food and pharmaceutical industry invests more and more on the growing market by development of new processes and products, so functional foods and nutraceutical products are coming up both for humans and animals.