Gut Health in Veterinary Medicine: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Literature
1
Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Turin, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy
2
Department of Surgery and Pathology, Miguel Hernandez University, 03550 Alicante, Spain
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Equally contribution.
Academic Editor: Clive J. C. Phillips
Animals 2021, 11(7), 1997; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11071997
Received: 1 June 2021
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Revised: 23 June 2021
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Accepted: 1 July 2021
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Published: 3 July 2021
(This article belongs to the Section Veterinary Clinical Studies)
Simple Summary
Gut health has been a main topic in veterinary medicine research after the ban on the use of antimicrobial growth promoters. Gut health has been defined as absence/prevention/avoidance of gastrointestinal disease so that the animal is able to perform its physiological functions. A bibliometric analysis is a set of statistical methods used to explore trends in the scientific literature such as number of publications, most prolific countries and main research areas to highlight publication dynamics and gaps of knowledge. In this case, a bibliometric analysis was performed on veterinary gut health using the database Web of Science and the R package Bibliometrix. A total of 1696 documents were retrieved between 2000 and 2020, showing an increase of 22.4% in the number of annual publications. Pigs (34.8%), poultry (chicken, duck, turkey and quail—33.9%) and aquaculture (fishes, crustaceans and frog—15.0%) were the most studied species while a scarce number of publications was found on felines, cows, horses, rodents, goats and sheep. China (24.7%), USA (17.2%) and Canada (5.7%) were the most productive countries. Three main research lines aimed to explore animal nutrition, prevention of inflammatory diseases and microbiota composition were identified. This study will help drive future research on the topic.
Gut health is a recent relevant research topic in veterinary medicine and it has been shown to be associated with better zootechnical performances and animal welfare. A bibliometric analysis was performed to explore publication trends, dynamics and possible knowledge gaps in this field in the last twenty years (2000–2020). The database Web of Science was searched and the results were analyzed by the R package Bibliometrix. A total of 1696 documents were retrieved in the evaluated period, showing a constant annual growth in the number of publications of 22.4%. These articles focused mainly on pigs (34.8%), poultry (chicken, duck, turkey and quail—33.9%) and aquaculture (fishes, crustaceans and frog—15.0%) while a scarce number was found on felines, cows, horses, rodents, goats and sheep. China was the most productive country (24.7%) followed by the USA (17.2%) and Canada (5.7%). Keyword’s analysis showed that the main research lines aimed to explore animal nutrition, prevention of inflammatory diseases and microbiota composition. This study shows a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the evolution of veterinary gut health research that will help to drive future investigations on this topic.
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Keywords:
gut health; veterinary medicine; bibliometric analysis
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MDPI and ACS Style
Colombino, E.; Prieto-Botella, D.; Capucchio, M.T. Gut Health in Veterinary Medicine: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Literature. Animals 2021, 11, 1997. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11071997
AMA Style
Colombino E, Prieto-Botella D, Capucchio MT. Gut Health in Veterinary Medicine: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Literature. Animals. 2021; 11(7):1997. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11071997
Chicago/Turabian StyleColombino, Elena, Daniel Prieto-Botella, and Maria T. Capucchio. 2021. "Gut Health in Veterinary Medicine: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Literature" Animals 11, no. 7: 1997. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11071997
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