Stress is an important factor which it comes to gastrointestinal (GI) diseases in both animals and humans, as anyone with ulcers can attest.
Dr. Adam Moeser with North Carolina State University spoke at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar last week about how stress factors can specifically have an influence on how swine react to pathogens. “We know that the GI tract is one of the most important organ systems in the animal,” he said. “The gut represents a very large interface between the animal and the outside world.”
How the gut maintains its integrity in the face of disease can be influenced by stress. “We know that stressers in the environment always precede the onset of many diseases,” says Moeser. “But we really don’t understand much beyond that…when we know more we’ll be able to develop preventative strategies.”
Moeser says his research has found a potential link between stress and a breakdown of intestinal integrity in swine. “The gut becomes leaky and the animals are more susceptible to disease,” he explained. “Management factors such as weaning age can have a dramatic impact on how that animal is going to be able to defend itself against pathogens later in life.”
Learn more in this interview: Interview with Adam Moeser, NC State University