Relación microbioma, salud y producción en las ciencias pecuarias

The microbiome (or microbiota,) the collection of microorganisms that colonize and inhabit mammalian cavities, surfaces and epithelia, plays critical roles in the animal physiological landscape. This microecosystem, made up by trillions of microbial cells and their genes, encodes functions that extend the physiological capabilities of animals and that guarantee the efficient execution of nutritional, immune and welfare processes, that would be unavailable otherwise. Although the importance of the microbiome in animal health and efficiency has long been recognized in production systems, advances in molecular biology, next generation sequencing techniques, bioinformatics, meta-OMIC sciences, data mining and machine learning to study microbiomes (microbiOMIC techniques,) have shed light on an unprecedented compositional and functional complexity of microbiomes in different model systems, and have revealed that the microbiome simultaneously impacts multiple physiological processes in animals in diverse manners. Furthermore, the application of microbiOMIC techniques in different animal model has unraveled the potential of nutritional and management interventions to modulate microbiomes and improve the efficiency of animal production systems. Microbiome modulation strategies in food animals are of critical importance today, given current challenges on food security, environmental sustainability and clean food production that we face in the field. This conference seeks to provide current perspectives on the influence of the microbiome in animal production systems. Emphasis will be made on the molecular mechanisms that support the animal-microbe-diet axis and on the intricate, close relationship between nutrition, immune homeostasis (health) and animal efficiency. Likewise, based on evidence collected up to date, different scenarios are presented, in which nutritional and environmental strategies are used to modulate the microbiome and influence animal physiology and health, in favor of more efficient production systems.