By Emily Matchar
Steve Lindemann, associate professor of food science and head of the Diet-Microbiome Interactions Laboratory, studies human health and disease – his work involves dietary fiber and the gut microbiome. But he’s also interested in how these same principles could benefit animals – and, therefore, humans as well. This intersection of human and animal health is foundational to the One Health Initiative.
Lindemann is working along with an Indiana biotechnology startup, BiomEdit, on studying fiber in animal feed. If they could figure out which fibers have the best fermentability in cattle guts, it could potentially make cows healthier and reduce methane emissions – i.e., cow burps. Fewer methane emissions equal fewer greenhouse gases. One approach may be to inoculate a cow’s rumen with a probiotic cocktail of bacteria that makes acids the cow can consume rather than methane, which is lost to the atmosphere.
Another project, in collaboration with Timothy Johnson, associate professor of animal sciences, involves using wheat bran to colonize piglets’ guts with bacteria from healthy, mature pigs before weaning. This could reduce weaning and transport stress, a major cause of swine illness, antibiotic use, and death.
Source : purdue.edu