The purpose of the B. Sc. Thesis is to analyse the use of pigs as models for studies of human nutrition. The digestive tract of pigs is much more similar to human digestive tract in terms of volume ratios between individual parts of the GIT and in terms of histological structure than the digestive tract of various rodents, dog and also human-like apes. Metabolically, pigs and humans are very similar, as well both species have similar microbial digestion and similar regulation of ingestion and satiety. Due to similarities in anatomy and physiology with humans, the pig is much better model for human digestion research experiments than other animal models used so far. As a result, the use of pigs as an animal model makes possible to study also many digestive disorders and dietary related health problems. The use of pig for scientific purposes in the future will help us discover many other digestive and diet-related diseases.
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