Senior Manager Clinical Trials Nestle Purina PetCare Company St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Abstract:
Background: Synbiotics are a mixture of live microorganisms and a substrate that confers a health benefit on the host. The combination of psyllium and Enterococcus faecium SF68 as a synbiotic has not been evaluated previously in companion animals.
Hypothesis/
Objectives: To determine if the addition of psyllium to E. faecium SF68 has a beneficial effect on microbiome health through the evaluation of microbial diversity in dogs.
Animals: Forty-eight healthy adult sled dogs were supplemented daily with a probiotic (E. faecium SF68 5x108 CFU/g) or synbiotic (E. faecium SF68 5x108 CFU/g plus 1 g psyllium) for 28 days (n=24/group).
Methods: Fresh fecal samples were collected prior to supplementation (baseline) and at the end of supplementation for microbiome analysis. Principal components analysis was performed on CLR-transformed counts, and PERMANOVA was performed on Aitchison distances (Euclidean distances based on CLR-transformed counts). Relationships between principal components and treatment groups were explored using linear mixed-effects models controlling for random effects of each dog.
Results: Permutational multivariate analyses of variance (PERMANOVA) revealed that dogs assigned to the Probiotic and Synbiotic groups did not significantly differ in fecal microbial community composition at baseline (P=0.598) but did by the end of 28 days of feeding (P=0.012).
Conclusions and clinical importance: Psyllium husk fiber has been observed to be moderately fermented by dogs, resulting in changes in gut microbial composition. The beneficial role of intestinal microbiota and a balanced microbiome in maintaining the health of dogs can be strengthened by the supplementation of the synbiotic E. faecium SF68 and psyllium.
