Host Pillar

The foundation for this pillar is a comprehensive clinical and pathological characterization of intestinal health in a cohort of 2,000 pigs with the aim to differentiate unequivocally between the phenotype of the robust pig and the non-robust pig. The overarching scientific focus is to elucidate the complex interactions between the intestinal microbiome and host factors and determine their separate and combined influence on intestinal health and resilience. Thus, the Host Pillar will fill in the existing knowledge gap regarding the role of hostmicrobiome interaction on robustness towards intestinal disease. The knowledge gap will be bridged by clarifying the individual and combined impact of the pig host factors and the microbiome on intestinal and systemic health, and by identifying biomarkers that predict intestinal disease predisposition at different stages of life.

The pillar encompasses three interrelated research themes (see the figure below):

• HRT1 aims to develop a robustness score in pigs differentiating between pigs with superior and inferior intestinal health
• HRT2 aims to elucidate the complex interactions between the microbiome and host factors and determine their separate and combined influence on intestinal health and resilience
• HRT3 feeds into the Microbiome Pillar by providing samples for establishing the biogeography of the developing pig intestinal microbiome. Furthermore, it aims to determine the impact of the microbiome on the intestinal homeostasis in the healthy and the unhealthy intestinal tract.