ABSTRACT
Gastrointestinal diseases continue to represent a major threat to human health on a global scale. Factors such as malnutrition, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) immunocompromization, and lack of clean water have exacerbated the incidence of
acute and chronic acquired gastrointestinal infections, while the increase in global travel has ensured that new emerging strains of enteric pathogens can rapidly spread and become established in other continents. Furthermore, the increasing use of broad-spectrum antibiotics has created new multiresistant bacteria, which often cause endemic hospital infections. The possibilities — if any — of preventing these problems are currently limited at best. In fact, there is a real need to develop new means of combating gastrointestinal tract infections and systemic infections originating from the intestinal tract. Exploiting the molecules of immune defense from an immunized animal may provide an appropriate strategy to this end.
