Gastroenterological research in domestic animals--past, present and future perspectives

The gastrointestinal research in domestic animals in Poland is briefly discussed in the section. The history starts over seventy years ago with the creation of the Department of Animal Physiology at the Veterinary Faculty of Warsaw University. Professor B. Gutowski, the first head of the Department, and his pupils established the School of Gastrointestinal Physiology; renowned for the achievements in physiology of digestion, gastrointestinal motility, pancreas and liver functions, and comparative physiology of domestic ruminants and wild animals. After the WWII the gastrointestinal research has also been initiated in the newly established faculties of veterinary and animal science of the agricultural universities in Lublin (motility, composition of pepsinogen, biliary and pancreas secretion, vitamin and microelement absorption), Szczecin (lipid absorption, lymph formation), Wrocław (gastrointestinal and gall bladder motility, bile secretion) as well as in the Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition of the Polish Academy of Science (digestion and absorption, development of the gastrointestinal tract in neonates). The research activity was focused on solving the problems faced by animal production in Poland, but it also resulted in a considerable number of physiological findings of an international dimension, and initiated new research areas.