The protected environment within the cecotroph has led
to the suggestion that feeding intact cecotrophs obtained from a healthy
rabbit may be a useful probiotic adjunct in the treatment of various pathologic
conditions of the rabbit hindgut (eg, antibiotic-related dysenterobiosis,
enteritis). There are two main problems with this concept. First, it can prove
difficult or even impossible to ensure that the cecotrophs are swallowed with-
out breaking the mucin coat. Second, the intact cecotrophs are too large to
pass from the stomach to the small intestine until the mucinous coat has been
broken down, at which point the bacteria are exposed to the normal gastric
digestive processes, and so the bacteria within the cecotroph may not survive
to colonize the intestines after all [17].
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