How to employ metabolomic analysis to research on functions of prebiotics and probiotics in poultry gut health?

Gut health can be considered one of the major, manageable constituents of the animal immunity and performance. The fast spread of intestinal diseases, and increase of antimicrobial resistance have been observed, therefore the intestinal health has become not only economically relevant, but also highly important subject addressing the interest of public health. It is expected, that the strategies to control infections should be based on development of natural immunity in animals and producing resilient flocks using natural solutions, whilst eliminating antibiotics and veterinary medicinal products from action. Probiotics and prebiotics have been favored, because they have potential to directly or indirectly optimize intestinal health by manipulating the metabolism of the intestinal tract, including the microbiota. Studying the metabolome of probiotics and gut environment, both in vivo, or using the in vitro models, is required to attain the scientific understanding about the functions of bioactive compounds in development of gut health and life lasting immunity. There is a practical need to identify new metabolites being the key bioactive agents regulating biochemical pathways of systems associated with gut (gut-associated axes). Technological advancement in metabolomics studies, and increasing access to the powerful analytical platforms have paved a way to implement metabolomics in exploration of the effects of prebiotics and probiotics on the intestinal health of poultry. In this article, the basic principles of metabolomics in research involving probiotics and probiotics are introduced, together with the overview of existing strategies and suggestions of their use to study metabolome in poultry.