A Pyrosequencing Investigation of Differences in the Feline Subgingival Microbiota in Health, Gingivitis and Mild Periodontitis

Abstract

Periodontitis is the most frequently diagnosed health problem in cats yet little is known about the bacterial species important for the disease. The objective of this study was to identify bacterial species associated with health, gingivitis or mild periodontitis (<25% attachment loss) in feline plaque. Knowledge of these species is a first step in understanding the potential for improving oral health of cats via dietary interventions that alter the proportions of influential species. Subgingival plaque samples were collected from 92 cats with healthy gingiva, gingivitis or mild periodontitis. Pyrosequencing of the V1-V3 region of the 16S rDNA from these plaque samples generated more than one million reads and identified a total of 267 operational taxonomic units after bioinformatic and statistical analysis. Porphyromonas was the most abundant genus in all gingival health categories, particularly in health along with Moraxella and Fusobacteria. The Peptostreptococcaceae were the most abundant family in gingivitis and mild periodontitis. Logistic regression analysis identified species from various genera that were significantly associated with health, gingivitis or mild periodontitis. The species identified were very similar to those observed in canine plaque in the corresponding health and disease states. Such similarities were not observed between cat and human at the bacterial species level but with disease progression similarities did emerge at the phylum level. This suggests that interventions targeted at human pathogenic species will not be effective for use in cats but there is more potential for commonalities in interventions for cats and dogs.

Efficacy of virginiamycin for the control of periodontal disease in calves

“…Among the microorganisms associated with gingivitis, F. nucleatum presents great importance, since it is one of the organisms responsible for the inflammatory process, the beginning of the development of periodontitis, and the recruitment of other periodontopathogens. Although F. nucleatum is commonly found in microbiological studies of periodontal diseases, it is also detected in healthy periodontal sites, as well as in sites with gingivitis and periodontitis in humans and animals (Kolenbrander 2000, Kolenbrander et al 2002, Senhorinho et al 2011, Signat et al 2011, Harris et al 2015. Species of Fusobacterium genus are susceptible to the action of virginiamycin (Araújo et al 2016), which is related to the results of this present study, in which the highest number of positive samples were in the Control Group (Fig.3 and Fig.4).…”

“…Mollicutes class and Archaea domain, in humans and animals, are present in healthy patients with gingivitis, necrotizing gingivitis, or periodontitis (Yamabe et al 2008, Faveri et al 2011, Griffen et al 2012, Chen et al 2015, Harris et al 2015. In cattle with periodontitis, Mollicutes class is more often associated with the disease (Borsanelli et al 2018).…”

The aetiopathogenesis of equine periodontal disease – a fresh perspective

“…It is well recognised that bacteria play a major role in the aetiopathogenesis of human (Socransky et al 1998), canine (Hennet and Harvey 1991a,b) and feline (Harris et al 2015) periodontal disease and it is easy to appreciate the potential importance of bacteria in equine periodontitis. This role was recently supported by the histopathological finding of spirochetes in the sulcar epithelium ( Fig 10) of diseased equine periodontal pockets, which also had cocci on the epithelial surface (Fig 11) (Cox et al 2012).…”

Genomics of the Uncultivated, Periodontitis-Associated Bacterium Tannerella sp. BU045 (Oral Taxon 808)

“…The genus Tannerella comprises a set of bacterial species that have been found in the oral cavities of various mammals, including humans, cats (1, 2), dogs (3), and horses (4). The type species is Tannerella forsythia, (formerly known as Bacteroides forsythus and Tannerella forsythensis [5–7]).…”

“…Conversely, it does not appear to be associated with gingivitis or mild periodontitis in cats (1). A previous study from our group examined the prevalence of Tannerella sp.…”