Interest in animal microbiomes as therapeutics is rapidly expanding, as techniques to study the microbial world decrease in cost and increase in accessibility, and case studies from human medicine receive widespread attention. The current state of techniques and strategies to modify the microbiome to improve animal health, focusing on applications in domestic pets and farm animals, will be the main focus of this event.

We will be untangling the basic biology of microbiome-directed therapies in animals and the examples to-date of application of probiotics, prebiotics, and other microbiome-directed therapies and feed additives being used to benefit animal health. We will also be looking heavily at the impact of different feed and nutrition profiles on animal microbiomes, and the power of nutrition in affecting animal health in a beneficial way.

Finally, the event will host the animal microbiome and nutritional health innovation showcase, where eight emerging companies in the field of animal nutrition will present the microbiome and nutritional solutions they can bring to market.