Prebiotics and Probiotics Supplementation in Pigs as a Model for Human Gut Health and Disease

Animal models are an essential part of translational research for the purpose of improving human health. The pig is a potential human research model that can be used to assess the effects of dietary interventions, pathologies, and drugs on gut health and the microbiome, due to its anatomical and physiological similarity to humans. It is recognised that a healthy gut is closely linked to the prevention of several chronic diseases, including obesity, diabetes, gastrointestinal inflammation, as well as neurological and cardiovascular diseases. The use of prebiotics and probiotics plays an important role in maintaining a healthy digestive system, which is responsible for modulating all other body functions. The present review focuses on the applications of prebiotics and probiotics in the pig as an animal model in healthy and diseased conditions, in order to highlight the efficacy of these molecules in the perspective of human health outcomes. The data support the use of prebiotics to improve intestinal health in both healthy and diseased states. In addition, the use of human microbiota-associated (HMA) gnotobiotic pigs provided a good model to study the intestinal and systemic immune response and microbiota composition following probiotic supplementation after a vaccine or virus challenge.