Abstract
Background: Canine chronic enteropathies (CE) are a group of intestinal diseases that can be categorized based on treatment response into diet- or food- responsive enteropathy (FRD), antibiotic-responsive enteropathy, steroid-responsive enteropathy, and non-responsive enteropathy. CE can often be associated with intestinal dysbiosis and thus administration of probiotic or synbiotic products may provide a useful tool for the management of some of these patients. Enterococcus faecium (EF) is a probiotic strain included in a commercially available synbiotic for small animals, however its impact on the microbial communities in dogs with FRD has not yet been evaluated.Hypothesis/Objectives: The administration of a synbiotic will lead to a significant difference of the fecal microbial composition and/or diversity in dogs with FRD, and these changes are not attributable to diet change alone.Animals/Samples: Twelve dogs with FRD fed a hydrolyzed protein diet received either a synbiotic (EF, fructooligosaccharides, gum Arabic) or placebo. Fecal samples were taken before and 6 weeks into treatment. Fecal samples were also acquired from 8 healthy dogs before and 6 weeks after being switched to the same hydrolyzed protein diet as their sole food.Methods: Bacterial DNA was extracted from fecal samples and next generation sequencing based on the 16S rRNA genes was performed. Microbial composition and diversity between groups were compared using QIIME.Results: There was a small increase in species diversity in the feces of dogs with FRD treated with synbiotics. However, there were no significant differences in microbial community composition before and after 6 weeks in either the synbiotic or placebo treated dogs with FRD or the healthy dogs. In all groups, large individual variations were observed.Conclusions: No changes in microbial composition were observed in diseased or healthy dogs with diet change alone. However, administration of a synbiotic increased bacterial richness in both groups.
Highlights
Canine chronic enteropathies (CE) are a group of intestinal diseases of unknown cause [1, 2]
A total of 12 dogs of various breeds diagnosed with chronic enteropathy completed the randomized placebo-controlled treatment trial as part of another study and received a full standard workup [22]
The objective of the current study was to assess changes in fecal microbiota upon administration of a synbiotic combined with hydrolyzed protein diet in dogs with food-responsive disease (FRD) compared to effects of diet change alone
Summary
Canine chronic enteropathies (CE) are a group of intestinal diseases of unknown cause [1, 2] They are usually classified by response to treatment as food-responsive disease (FRD), antibiotic-responsive disease (ARD), and steroid-responsive disease (SRD), with the latter being termed (idiopathic) inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) [2, 3]. All dogs with CE present with intestinal inflammation to some degree and have been shown to share similar alterations in the microbiome when compared to healthy dogs [4] Those alterations in the gut microbiome composition are termed dysbiosis, especially when they result in functional changes in the microbial transcriptome, proteome, or metabolome [5]. Fecal samples were acquired from 8 healthy dogs before and 6 weeks after being switched to the same hydrolyzed protein diet as their sole food
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