The respiratory microbiota of dogs and cats in health and disease: expanding our breadth of knowledge
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The long-held belief that the lungs were devoid of bacteria was largely perpetuated by the fact that most bacteria on earth are not cultivable using standard culture methods. Using culture-independent methods the lungs of healthy humans, dogs and other large animal species have been found to have rich and diverse microbiota. Furthermore, studies in humans and animals demonstrate differences in the composition of airway microbiota in health versus disease suggesting respiratory dysbiosis occurs. The existence of a gut-lung axis has been proposed to explain some of the host-microbe interactions and cross-talk between the two organ systems in health and disease. Since dogs and cats share similarities with COPD and allergic asthma in humans, respectively, studies in these species have the potential to advance human and veterinary medicine, alike. 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of DNA was extracted from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid as well as rectal, oropharyngeal, and blood samples when available from healthy and asthmatic cats, healthy cats after administration of oral probiotics and dogs with bacterial pneumonia. The most relevant findings in this body of work include: (1) healthy cats have a rich, diverse, distinct, and dynamic lower airway microbiota; (2) primary airway inflammation can result in gastrointestinal dysbiosis in cats with experimentally induced asthma; (3) orally administered probiotics can impact the lower airway microbiota of healthy cats; (4) airway dysbiosis occurs in cats with spontaneous and experimentally induced asthma and dogs with bacterial pneumonia. Collectively these studies set the stage for future investigation of the respiratory microbiota in dogs, cats and humans.
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Ph. D.