Animal models in advancement of research in enteric diseases

Animal models are extremely imperative because they permit researchers to illuminate complex biological mechanisms that trigger cellular processes and molecular functions in infection and diseases. To understand the complex molecular mechanism of disease and development of therapeutic strategies, direct human studies cannot be conducted because explaining such requires carefully controlled experimental manipulations, such as genetic knock-out/knock-ins, administration of pharmacological agents, or exposure to controlled environmental factors such as bacteria and bacterial-derived products. In this chapter, we focus on the characteristics, current challenges, and limitations of various animal models for enteric bacterial pathogens that have been developed and can be used to monitor the microbial colonization, disease, pathology, host immune response or combinations of these features.