“…Indeed, previous investigations in cattle and mice have reported that host genes encoding for antimicrobial proteins are up-regulated in the mucosae of animals resistant to helminth infection ( D'Elia et al, 2009 , Li et al, 2015 ). In addition, dietary supplementation with both pro- ( Bautista-Garfias et al, 1999 , Bautista-Garfias et al, 2001 , Martinez-Gomez et al, 2009 , Martinez-Gomez et al, 2011 , Oliveira-Sequeira et al, 2014 , El Temsahy et al, 2015 ) and pre-biotics ( Petkevicius et al, 2003 , Petkevicius et al, 2004 , Petkevicius et al, 2007 , Thomsen et al, 2005 , Jensen et al, 2011 ), has led to significant reductions in worm burdens in murine and swine helminth infection models, thus indicating that alterations of the gut bacterial flora may bias host immune responses against parasites. Further characterisation of equine host mucosal responses and GI microbiota, in the presence or absence of helminth infection and accompanied by total enumeration of infecting parasites, is a key area of future research, as it may lead to the identification of microbial factors linked to host susceptibility.…”