| Summary: | Hydrogen sulfide is a Janus-faced molecule with many beneficial and toxic effects on the animal health. In ruminants, rumen fermentation plays a vital role in the digestion and absorption of nutrients. During rumen fermentation, the production of hydrogen sulfide can occur, and it can be rapidly absorbed into the body of the animals through the intestinal wall. If the production of hydrogen sulfide concentration is higher in the rumen, it can cause a toxic effect on ruminants known as poliomyelitis. The production of hydrogen sulfide depends on the population of sulfate-reducing bacteria in the rumen. In rodents, H<sub>2</sub>S maintains the normal physiology of the gastrointestinal tract and also improves the healing of the chronic gastric ulcer. In the gut, H<sub>2</sub>S regulates physiological functions such as inflammation, ischemia–reperfusion injury and motility. In this review article, we summarize the toxicity occurrence in the body of animals due to high levels of hydrogen sulfide production and also recent progress in the studies of physiological function of H<sub>2</sub>S in the gut, with a special emphasis on bacteria-derived H<sub>2</sub>S is discussed in this review.
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