Giardiasis and diarrhea in dogs: Does the microbiome matter?

Background Giardia duodenalis (Gd) causes intestinal parasitosis. The involvement of the intestinal microbiome in determining the infection's clinical phenotype is unknown. Objective Investigate the fecal microbiome features in dogs with giardiasis. Animals and Methods Cross‐sectional study, in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of veterinary internal medicine 2024-01, Vol.38 (1), p.152-160
Main Authors: Kuzi, Sharon, Zgairy, Soha, Byrne, Barbara A., Suchodolski, Jan, Turjeman, Sondra C., Park, So Young, Aroch, Itamar, Hong, Mike, Koren, Omry, Lavy, Eran
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Animals
Asymptomatic
canine
Clostridium
Cross-Sectional Studies
Diarrhea
Diarrhea - microbiology
Diarrhea - veterinary
Dog Diseases - diagnosis
Dogs
Dysbiosis - veterinary
dysbiosis index
Feces
Feces - microbiology
Female
Giardia duodenalis
Giardiasis - diagnosis
Giardiasis - veterinary
Health care
Infections
Investigations
Male
Microbiota
Parasites
Parasitic diseases
Phylogenetics
proteobacteria
SMALL ANIMAL
Verrucomicrobia
Virulence
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Summary:Background Giardia duodenalis (Gd) causes intestinal parasitosis. The involvement of the intestinal microbiome in determining the infection's clinical phenotype is unknown. Objective Investigate the fecal microbiome features in dogs with giardiasis. Animals and Methods Cross‐sectional study, including fecal samples of kenneled dogs with Gd diagnosed by fecal Giardia antigen dot ELISA. The fecal microbial compositional characteristics and dysbiosis index (DI) were compared between diarrheic and nondiarrheic dogs. Results Fecal samples of 38 Gd‐infected dogs (diarrheic, 21; nondiarrheic, 17) were included. No differences were found in Faith's phylogenic diversity and beta diversity (weighted UniFrac distances) and in specific taxa abundances at the phylum, genus, and species levels, as well as in alpha and beta diversities between diarrheic and nondiarrheic dogs, and also when divided by sex or age. Among diarrheic dogs, alpha diversity was higher in males than in females (pairwise Kruskal‐Wallis, q = 0.01). Among males, fecal abundances of the genus Clostridium (W = 19) and Clostridium spiroforme species (W = 33) were higher in diarrheic compared to nondiarrheic dogs. In diarrheic dog fecal samples, Proteobacteria were more prevalent (W = 1), whereas Verrucomicrobia were less prevalent in dogs
ISSN:0891-6640
1939-1676
DOI:10.1111/jvim.16894