Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dysbiosis index measures gut bacteria changes in dogs
By AlShawaqfeh, M K et al.·Published in FEMS microbiology ecology·2017·Texas A&M University, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: A dysbiosis index to assess microbial changes in fecal samples of dogs with chronic inflammatory enteropathy.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs with chronic inflammatory bowel disease (CE) had their fecal samples tested to understand changes in their gut bacteria compared to healthy dogs. Researchers used a special test to analyze the DNA from the feces of 106 dogs with CE and 95 healthy dogs, identifying specific bacteria that were different between the two groups. They created a new scoring system called a dysbiosis index (DI) that helps veterinarians determine how healthy a dog's gut bacteria are. This index showed a high accuracy in distinguishing between healthy dogs and those with CE, which could help in diagnosing and managing gut health issues in dogs.
People also search for: dog chronic inflammatory bowel disease symptoms · dog gut bacteria test · how to improve dog gut health
Abstract
Recent studies have identified various bacterial groups that are altered in dogs with chronic inflammatory enteropathies (CE) compared to healthy dogs. The study aim was to use quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays to confirm these findings in a larger number of dogs, and to build a mathematical algorithm to report these microbiota changes as a dysbiosis index (DI). Fecal DNA from 95 healthy dogs and 106 dogs with histologically confirmed CE was analyzed. Samples were grouped into a training set and a validation set. Various mathematical models and combination of qPCR assays were evaluated to find a model with highest discriminatory power. The final qPCR panel consisted of eight bacterial groups: total bacteria, Faecalibacterium, Turicibacter, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus, Blautia, Fusobacterium and Clostridium hiranonis. The qPCR-based DI was built based on the nearest centroid classifier, and reports the degree of dysbiosis in a single numerical value that measures the closeness in the l2 - norm of the test sample to the mean prototype of each class. A negative DI indicates normobiosis, whereas a positive DI indicates dysbiosis. For a threshold of 0, the DI based on the combined dataset achieved 74% sensitivity and 95% specificity to separate healthy and CE dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29040443/