The role of microbiome for general health status of animals: Jan S. Suchodolski is an associate professor in small animal medicine, associate director for research, and head of microbiome sciences at the Gastrointestinal Laboratory at Texas A&M University. His research is focused on developing biomarkers for gastrointestinal disease and therapeutic approaches for the modulation of the intestinal microbiota. He has authored or co-authored more than 270 peer-reviewed articles in the area of veterinary gastroenterology and microbiome research.