A fecal microbiota transplant (FMT), also called fecal transplant, is the transfer of stool from a healthy donor to the GI tract of a sick recipient. The stool from the donor contains a diverse, well-functioning community of bacteria that take up residence in the recipient’s gut. FMT is the best known approach for restoring a balanced gut microbiome and has proven to be an effective treatment in both humans and companion animals.
FMT has been used for hundreds of years in veterinary medicine and for over a thousand years in human medicine. Though modern regulatory entities like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are still determining how to classify it, FMT continues to demonstrate beneficial results for a growing list of human health conditions. For example, FMT is routinely used to treat Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) infections. And it provides a promising solution for the low gut bacterial diversity associated with Crohn’s disease (a form of IBD).