Characterization of intestinal microbiota in normal weight and overweight Border Collie and Labrador Retriever dogs

Abstract

Obesity in dogs is an emerging issue that affects canine health and well-being. Its development is ascribed to several factors, including genetic predisposition and dietary management, and recent evidence suggests that intestinal microbiota may be involved as well. Previous works have shown obesity to be linked to significant changes in gut microbiota composition in humans and mice, but only limited information is available on the role played by canine gut microbiota. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate whether composition of canine faecal microbiota may be influenced by overweight condition and breed. All the enrolled companion dogs were young adults, intact, healthy, and fed commercial extruded pet food; none had received antibiotics, probiotics or immunosuppressant drugs in the previous six months. Labrador Retriever (LR) and Border Collie (BC) were chosen as reference breeds and Body Condition Score (BCS) on a 9-point scale as reference method for evaluating body fat. The faecal microbial communities of 15 lean (BCS 4–5/9; 7 LRs and 8 BCs) and 14 overweight (BCS > 5/9; 8 LRs and 6 BCs) family dogs were analysed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Moreover, for each dog, the daily intake of energy (kcal/d) and dietary macronutrients (g/d) were calculated according to an accurate feeding history collection. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes resulted the predominant phyla (51.5 ± 10.0% and 33.4 ± 8.5%, respectively) in all dogs. Bioinformatic and statistical analysis revealed that no bacterial taxon differed significantly based on body condition, except for genus Allisonella (p < 0.05); BC gut microbiota was richer (p < 0.05) in bacteria belonging to phyla Actinobacteria (family Coriobacteriaceae in particular) and Firmicutes (Allobaculum and Roseburia genera). No remarkable differences were recorded either for diversity indices (i.e., alpha diversity, p > 0.10) or for divergence within the sample set (i.e., beta diversity, p > 0.05). PERMANOVA tests performed on single factors demonstrated the tendency of dietary protein to influence the recruited dogs’ microbiota beta-diversity at amplicon sequence variant level (p = 0.08). In conclusion, the faecal microbiota of dogs involved in this exploratory study showed no major variations based on body condition. However, our findings suggested that certain bacterial taxa previously acknowledged in obesity-related studies may be detected in dissimilar amounts depending on canine breed.

Comparative analysis of the gut microbiota of the Chinese Kunming dog, German Shepherd, and Belgian Malinois

“…For example, the abundance of Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Fusobacteria, Bacteroidota, and Cyanobacteria is signi cantly lower in the intestinal ora of a wolf than in that of other canine species. Additionally, the abundance of Fusobacteria and Proteobacteria is signi cantly higher in Labrador Retriever Dog compared to other dog breeds, while the abundance of Firmicutes and Actinobacteria is signi cantly lower than that of other dogs [31]. Another study found that the intestinal ora of wild red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), sand foxes (Vulpes corsac), and blue foxes (Vulpes lagopus) have signi cantly lower intraspeci c differences than interspeci c differences and that the interspeci c differences are unaffected by habitat degradation [32].…”

“…The study on the intestinal ora of Maltese found that the abundance of Bacteroidota and Prehostella is signi cantly higher in females than in males, while the abundance of Atopobiaceae and Megamonas is signi cantly higher in males than in females and that there are signi cant differences in the beta diversities of the male and female individuals [35]. Previous studies on captive Border Collies found that the abundance of Prevostella, Peptostreptococcus, and Allisonella is signi cantly lower in the intestinal ora of normal-weight individuals than in that of overweight individuals [31]. In this study, the composition of the intestinal ora of three police dogs showed some interspeci c and intraspeci c differences, despite inhabiting the same domestication conditions and consuming the same food.…”

Effects of microalgae as dietary supplement on palatability, digestibility, fecal metabolites, and microbiota in healthy dogs

“…Peptococcus abundances were reported to be positively correlated with fecal butyrate and likewise associated with dogs’ gut health ( 95 ). More genera whose growth was stimulated by algae supplementation, Romboutsia and Alloprevotella , were shown to play an important role in dogs’s health via higher carbohydrate utilization ( 90 , 108 ) and improvements in body-weight regulation ( 109 ), respectively. Interestingly, some bacterial taxa that were in lower abundance with algae supplementation, such as Blautia , Allobaculum , and Ruminococcus were previously reported to be essential players in dogs weight regulation ( 110 , 111 ).…”

Comparative analysis of fasting effects on the cecum microbiome in three guinea pig breeds: Andina, Inti, and Peru

“…There are several reports that host genetics can influence the differences in the abundance of the microorganisms present in the gut microbiota of guinea pig breeds (Frias et al, 2023 ), pig breeds (Bergamaschi et al, 2020 ), chicken breeds (Sun et al, 2018 ; Yan et al, 2021 ), dog breeds (Morelli et al, 2022 ), and mice breeds (Campbell et al, 2012 ). These differences then could have an impact on the effect of a fasting treatment or a feed restriction treatment such as that observed in the cecal microbiome of different chicken breeds (Yan et al, 2021 ).…”