What is microflora and where it is located in the digestive system?
All animals are born with a relatively sterile gut. Thus the newly born animal will be more easily colonised by pathogenic microorganisms as there is no protective microflora to reduce the colonisation of pathogens at this stage of life. Soon after birth the newly born animal acquires a complex collection of microorganisms, which populate its intestinal tract. This collection of microorganisms is termed as the microflora. The gut microflora contains a variety of different bacteria and fungi of which there are typically ~400 different types of microorganisms with a total population of ~ 1014 throughout the length of the intestinal tract. This complex collection of gut microorganisms is distributed throughout the whole length of the gut and gut wall.
