The Kitty Microbiome Project: Defining the Healthy Fecal “Core Microbiome” in Pet Domestic Cats

Ganz, Holly H.; Jospin, Guillaume; Rojas, Connie A.; Martin, Alex L.; Dahlhausen, Katherine E.; Kingsbury, Dawn D.; Osborne, Carlton X.; Entrolezo, Zhandra; Redner, Syd; Ramirez, Bryan; Eisen, Jonathan A.; Leahy, Madeleine; Keaton, Chase; Wong, J; Gardy, Jennifer L.; Jarett, Jessica K.

doi:10.3390/vetsci9110635

Cited by 9 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 66 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Using data from Ganz et al 2022 [3] (Table S2), we compared a reference set of 166 healthy cats for comparison with FMT recipients with chronic digestive conditions. These cats had no known health conditions, clinical signs or diagnoses, had a body condition score between 3 and 6 (mean 5.14 ± 0.47) or a calculated BMI of less than or equal to 50, and had taken no antibiotics within the previous 12 months according to information reported by their owners.…”

Section: Preparation Of Fmt Capsulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Raw 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequences were obtained from fecal samples of recipient animals (68 individuals, 136 fecal samples), donor animals (10 individuals, 20 fecal samples), and healthy reference animals (166 individuals, 166 fecal samples [3]). Sequences were trimmed, quality-filtered and dereplicated using the Divisive Amplicon Denoising Algorithm (DADA2 v1.14.1) pipeline in R (v3.6.2) [34,35].…”

Section: S Rrna Sequence Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We investigated whether the relative abundances of core or potentially pathogenic taxa changed in recipient animals and whether these changes were associated with five host predictors. We defined core genera (N=21) as the genus-level bacterial taxa that were found in at least 55% of samples from a healthy population of cats [3] (Table S8). The potentially pathogenic taxa were five bacterial genera that may be pathogenic to felids (Table S9) [48][49][50][51].…”

Section: Statistical Analyses: Relative Abundances Of Bacterial Generamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lastly, we tested whether the fecal microbiomes of FMT recipients approximated or "became more similar" to the fecal microbiomes of age-matched healthy animals (Fig 1C) [3]. We wanted to investigate for example, whether the fecal microbiomes of cats with IBD became more similar or less similar to healthy animals compared to cats without IBD.…”

Section: Statistical Analyses: Fecal Microbiome Similarity Between Fm...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although not an exact proxy, the fecal microbiome reflects the trillions of microbes that reside in the gastrointestinal tract; microbes that collectively contribute to host digestion, immunity and pathogen defense, and intestinal barrier homeostasis [1]. While the composition of the fecal microbiome is highly dynamic and can correlate with a range of host factors including age [2,3], sex [4], body condition [5], diet [6,7], habitat [8,9], and antibiotic use [10], more persistent changes in composition have also been associated with disease and infections [11,12]. Compared to their healthy counterparts, the fecal microbiome of animals with the disease or infection may have reduced microbial diversity [13], decreased abundances of functionally important microbes like fermentative or short-chain fatty acid (SCFA)-producing bacteria [14], or elevated abundances of pathogenic taxa [15,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Microbiome Responses to Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Cats with Chronic Digestive Issues

Rojas¹,

Entrolezo²,

Jarett³

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is growing interest in the application of fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) in small animal medicine, but there are few published studies that have tested their effectiveness in the domestic cat (Felis catus). Here we use 16S rRNA gene sequencing to examine fecal microbiome changes in 68 domestic cats with chronic digestive issues that underwent FMT treatment using lyophilized stool that was delivered in oral capsules. Fecal samples were collected from FMT recipients before and two weeks after treatment, as well as from their stool donors, and healthy animals. We found that according to their owners, 77% of cats were reported to show improvement in their clinical signs (termed ‘Responders’), and 23% were reported to exhibit no change or a worsening of their clinical signs (termed ‘Non-Responders’). Variation in the fecal microbiomes of FMT recipients most strongly correlated with host clinical signs, diet, and IBD diagnosis. The relative abundances of Collinsella, Negativibacillus, Parabacteroides, and Peptoclostridium changed differentially in FMT recipients. Overall, on average 13% of the bacterial amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were shared between stool donors and FMT recipients (excluding ASVs already present in FMT recipients prior to treatment). The most commonly shared ASVs were classified as Prevotella 9, Peptoclostridium, Bacteroides, Collinsella and unclassified Lachnospiraceae. Lastly, FMT recipients that had recently taken antibiotics exhibited increases in microbiome similarity to an age-matched healthy reference set compared to other cats. Cats that had diarrhea or diarrhea with vomiting became more similar to healthy cats than did cats exhibiting other clinical signs. Overall, our results suggest that oral capsule FMT treatment was effective in this group of cats and microbiome responses may be modulated by the FMT recipient’s initial presenting clinical signs, prior IBD diagnosis, recent antibiotic use, and their diet.

show abstract

Section: Preparation Of Fmt Capsulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: S Rrna Sequence Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Statistical Analyses: Relative Abundances Of Bacterial Generamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Statistical Analyses: Fecal Microbiome Similarity Between Fm...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Microbiome Responses to Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Cats with Chronic Digestive Issues

Rojas¹,

Entrolezo²,

Jarett³

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Gut microbiota promoting propionic acid production accompanies caloric restriction-induced intentional weight loss in cats

Rowe,

Winston,

Parker

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rodent models and human clinical studies have shown gut microbiota-derived short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) play roles in obesity and insulin resistance. These roles have been minimally explored in cats, where in the USA an estimated 60% of cats are overweight or obese. Overweight/obese research cats (n = 7) were transitioned from a maintenance diet to a reduced calorie diet fed ad libitum for 7 days, then calories were restricted to achieve 1–2% weight loss per week for an additional 77 days. Cats then received their original maintenance diet again for 14 days. Significant intentional weight loss was noted after calorie restriction (adjusted p < 0.0001). 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and targeted SCFA metabolomics were performed on fecal samples. Fecal microbial community structure significantly differed between the four study phases (PERMANOVA p = 0.011). Fecal propionic acid was significantly higher during caloric restriction-induced weight loss (adjusted p < 0.05). Repeated measures correlation revealed the relative abundances of Prevotella 9 copri (correlation coefficient = 0.532, 95% CI (0.275, 0.717), p = 0.0002) significantly correlated with propionic acid composition. Like humans, obese cats experienced an altered microbial community structure and function, favoring propionic acid production, during caloric restriction-induced weight loss.

show abstract

Effects of weight loss and feeding specially formulated diets on the body composition, blood metabolite profiles, voluntary physical activity, and fecal metabolites and microbiota of overweight cats

Opetz,

Oba,

Kostiuk

et al. 2023

Journal of Animal Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Feline obesity is a common and preventable disease, posing a myriad of health risks and detriments. Specially formulated diets and restricted feeding may serve as an intervention strategy to promote weight loss and improve feline health. In this study, our objective was to determine the effects of restricted feeding and weight loss on body composition, voluntary physical activity, blood hormones and metabolites, and fecal microbiota of overweight cats. Twenty-two overweight adult spayed female and neutered male cats [body weight (BW) = 5.70±1.0 kg; body condition score (BCS) = 7.68±0.6; age = 4±0.4 yr] were used in a weight loss study. A control diet (OR) was fed during a 4-wk baseline to identify intake needed to maintain BW. After baseline (wk 0), cats were allotted to OR or a test diet (FT) and fed to lose ~1.0% BW/wk for 24 wk. At baseline and 6, 12, 18, and 24 wk after weight loss, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scans were performed and blood samples were collected. Voluntary physical activity was measured at wk 0, 8, 16 and 24. Fecal samples were collected at wk 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24. Change from baseline data were analyzed statistically using the Mixed Models procedure of SAS, with P<0.05 considered significant. Restricted feeding of both diets led to weight and fat mass loss, lower BCS, and lower blood triglyceride and leptin concentrations. Cats fed the FT diet had a greater reduction in blood triglycerides and cholesterol than cats fed the OR diet. Restricted feeding and weight loss reduced fecal short-chain fatty acid, branched-chain fatty acid, phenol, and indole concentrations. Fecal valerate concentrations were affected by diet, with cats fed the OR diet having a greater reduction than those fed the FT diet. Fecal bacterial alpha diversity was not affected, but fecal bacterial beta diversity analysis showed clustering by diet. Restricted feeding and weight loss affected relative abundances of 7 fecal bacterial genera, while dietary intervention affected change from baseline relative abundances of 2 fecal bacterial phyla and 20 fecal bacterial genera. Our data demonstrate that restricted feeding promoted controlled and safe weight and fat loss, reduced blood lipids and leptin concentrations, and shifted fecal metabolites and microbiota. Some changes were also impacted by diet, highlighting the importance of ingredient and nutrient composition in weight loss diets.

show abstract

The Kitty Microbiome Project: Defining the Healthy Fecal “Core Microbiome” in Pet Domestic Cats

Cited by 9 publications

References 66 publications

Microbiome Responses to Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Cats with Chronic Digestive Issues

Microbiome Responses to Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Cats with Chronic Digestive Issues

Gut microbiota promoting propionic acid production accompanies caloric restriction-induced intentional weight loss in cats

Effects of weight loss and feeding specially formulated diets on the body composition, blood metabolite profiles, voluntary physical activity, and fecal metabolites and microbiota of overweight cats

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About