Antibiotics cause gut dysbiosis and bile acid dysmetabolism in dogs. The effect of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) on microbiome and metabolome recovery is unknown. This prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled study included sixteen healthy purpose-bred dogs. All dogs received tylosin 20 mg/kg PO once daily (days 1–7) and were randomly assigned to either receive one FMT via enema (day 8), daily oral FMT capsules (days 8–21), or daily placebo capsules (days 8–21). Fecal samples were frozen at regular intervals until day 42. Quantitative PCR for 8 bacterial taxa was performed to calculate the fecal dysbiosis index (FDI) and fecal concentrations of unconjugated bile acids (UBA) were measured using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Tylosin altered the abundance of most evaluated bacteria and induced a significant decrease in secondary bile acid concentrations at day 7 in all dogs. However, most parameters returned to their baseline by day 14 in all dogs. In conclusion, tylosin markedly impacted fecal microbiota and bile acid concentrations, although return to baseline values was quick after the antibiotic was discontinued. Overall, FMT did not accelerate recovery of measured parameters. Further studies are warranted to confirm the value of FMT in accelerating microbiota recovery in antibiotic-associated dysbiosis in dogs.
The use of near infrared reflectance to measure kernel hardness in wheat is well established. Characterisation of wheat varieties grown commercially in the Republic of Ireland by this parameter revealed a bimodal hardness index distribution, with the degree of separation observed between the two varietal clusters being season-dependent. With one exception, the varietal composition of each cluster was identical to that obtained by a classification on the basis of milling and bread-baking quality. As the variety in question (Minaret) was not sown in 1983 and accounted for less than 2% of the commercial crop in the following year, hardness index measurement has been introduced by the trade as an indicator of milling and bread-baking quality. The precision (standard deviation between duplicates =0.24) and reproducibility (2.5% misclassification rate) of this test was shown to be sufficient for the trading application envisaged.
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