Shaping the intestinal Microbiota could help optimize pets wellbeing.
In the last decade pet food has experienced a shift toward premiumization and humanization. These strong trends are driven by pet owners which consider their pets to be family members. On the other side, pet food manufacturers, combining pet needs and pet owners’ desires have rapidly transferred global food trends from human nutrition to pet food.
According to market research, over 80% of new petfood product launches bear some health-related claims, and 22% digestive claims (source: Innova Market research, Feb. 2017). In fact, gastrointestinal tract (GIT) disorders are some of the most common reasons for veterinary consultations. Beyond GIT disorders there are some other concerns such as optimal nutrition, obesity, immune defense, healthy aging and stress.
Overall, well-being can be described as the main concern of any pet owner. But what wellbeing means and how we can define pet well-being? There are four main principles commonly used to assess animal well-being:
1) good feeding, 2) good housing, 3) good health 4) appropriate behavior.
Some of these parameters can be linked to a central organ which is often underestimated: the gut and its billions of inhabitants: the microbiota.
Is there a way to improve pets’ well-being by shaping their gut microbiota with natural feed ingredients?