How FMTs, Coprophagia and the Milk Microbiome Inform Wildlife Conservation With Sally Bornbusch

Sally Bornbusch, Ph.D., is an NSF postdoctoral fellow in biology conducting microbial ecology research in animal care and conservation at the Smithsonian National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. She discusses how FMTs are being used to mitigate health concerns in wild animals in captivity, shares key findings about the milk microbiome from the Smithsonian milk repository, the largest collection of exotic animal milks in the world, and explains the science behind eating poo (Coprophagia). 

Links for This Episode

• Why Do Animals Eat Poop? (And Why It Might Be a Good Thing).
• Faeces as food: a framework for adaptive nutritional coprophagy in vertebrates.
• Even Monkeys Should Eat Their Vegetables.
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