Abstract
Both humans and pet dogs are more prone to develop allergies in urban than in rural environments, which has been associated with the differing microbial exposures between areas. However, potential similarities in the microbiota, that associate with environmental exposures, in allergic dogs and owners has not been investigated. We evaluated skin and gut microbiota, living environment, and lifestyle in 168 dog-owner pairs. Due to partly different manifestations of allergies between species, we focused on aeroallergen sensitized humans and dogs with owner-reported allergic symptoms. Our results agree with previous studies: dog-owner pairs suffered simultaneously from these allergic traits, higher risk associated with an urban environment, and the skin, but not gut, microbiota was partly shared by dog-owner pairs. We further discovered that urban environment homogenized both dog and human skin microbiota. Notably, certain bacterial taxa, which were associated with living environment and lifestyle, were also related with allergic traits, but these taxa differed between dogs and humans. Thus, we conclude that dogs and humans can be predisposed to allergy in response to same risk factors. However, as shared predisposing or protective bacterial taxa were not discovered, other factors than environmental microbial exposures can mediate the effect or furry dog and furless human skin select different taxa.
Highlights
Both humans and pet dogs are more prone to develop allergies in urban than in rural environments, which has been associated with the differing microbial exposures between areas
Dogs suffering from allergic symptoms have dissimilar skin microbiota than healthy individuals[7,11,12], while humans suffering from asthma, allergic sensitization and atopic dermatitis tend to have dissimilar skin and/or gut microbiota structure compared to healthy individuals[13,14]
We aim to investigate these interlinkages in 168 pairs of dogs and their owners to understand whether the effect of shared living environment, lifestyle and microbial exposures on risk of allergic traits is similar in cohabiting dogs and owners
Summary
Both humans and pet dogs are more prone to develop allergies in urban than in rural environments, which has been associated with the differing microbial exposures between areas. As shared predisposing or protective bacterial taxa were not discovered, other factors than environmental microbial exposures can mediate the effect or furry dog and furless human skin select different taxa. Mammalian species may develop comparable disorders in response to similar factors For this reason, pet dogs could serve as real-life models of diseases associated with environmental exposures. Dogs suffering from allergic symptoms have dissimilar skin microbiota than healthy individuals[7,11,12], while humans suffering from asthma, allergic sensitization and atopic dermatitis tend to have dissimilar skin and/or gut microbiota structure compared to healthy individuals[13,14] These previous findings have primed our hypothesis that the effect of living environment and lifestyle in human and dog allergies can be the same. The role of microbiota as a common factor in the risk of allergic traits has not been addressed, healthy dogs and their owners have been shown to partly share their skin m icrobiota[15]
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