Cats' natural defenses help stave off illness.
By Lark L. Burnham, Ph.D.
All mammals, including cats, have a mutually beneficial, or symbiotic, relationship with around 400 species of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract, which includes the stomach, small intestine and large intestine.
According to George C. Fahey, Jr., Ph.D., professor of animal and nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois, this relationship starts on the first day of life. One of a mother cat's first gifts to her young is an inoculation of beneficial microbes.
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