Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Respiratory health in dogs and cats - what you need to know
By Vientós-Plotts, Aida I et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2023·College of Veterinary Medicine, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: The respiratory microbiota and its impact on health and disease in dogs and cats: A One Health perspective.
Plain-English summary
Recent research has shown that healthy lungs in dogs and cats are not completely free of bacteria, as was once believed. Instead, there are diverse and complex groups of microbes living in the lower airways, even if they are present in small amounts. Changes in these microbial communities, known as dysbiosis, have been linked to various respiratory diseases in humans, but similar studies in pets are still limited. The health of the lungs is also connected to the gut, meaning that the microbes in these areas can influence each other. This review discusses the importance of understanding these microbial communities and their potential role in respiratory health and disease in dogs and cats.
Abstract
Healthy lungs were long thought of as sterile, with presence of bacteria identified by culture representing contamination. Recent advances in metagenomics have refuted this belief by detecting rich, diverse, and complex microbial communities in the healthy lower airways of many species, albeit at low concentrations. Although research has only begun to investigate causality and potential mechanisms, alterations in these microbial communities (known as dysbiosis) have been described in association with inflammatory, infectious, and neoplastic respiratory diseases in humans. Similar studies in dogs and cats are scarce. The microbial communities in the respiratory tract are linked to distant microbial communities such as in the gut (ie, the gut-lung axis), allowing interplay of microbes and microbial products in health and disease. This review summarizes considerations for studying local microbial communities, key features of the respiratory microbiota and its role in the gut-lung axis, current understanding of the healthy respiratory microbiota, and examples of dysbiosis in selected respiratory diseases of dogs and cats.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37551852/