Faecal microbiota of domestic cats fed raw whole chicksv.an extruded chicken-based diet

Abstract

Extruded cat foods differ greatly in macronutrient distribution compared with wild-type diets (i.e. small mammals, reptiles, birds and insects). Based on the literature, this variability likely impacts faecal microbial populations. A completely randomised design was utilised to test the impacts of two dietary treatments on faecal microbial populations: (1) chicken-based extruded diet (EXT; n 3 cats) and (2) raw 1–3-d-old chicks (CHI; n 5 cats). Cats were adapted to diets for 10 d. Bacterial DNA was isolated from faecal samples and amplicons of the 16S rRNA V4–V6 region were generated and analysed by 454 pyrosequencing. Faeces of cats fed CHI had greater (P < 0·05) proportions of the following bacterial genera: unidentified Lachnospiraceae (15 v. 5 %), Peptococcus (9 v. 3 %) and Pseudobutyrivibrio (4 v. 1 %). Faeces of cats fed EXT had greater (P < 0·05) proportions of Faecalibacterium (1·0 v. 0·2 %) and Succinivibrio (1·2 v. < 0·1 %). Five genera, including Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, were present in a majority of samples (two to three out of three) from cats fed EXT, but were not detected in the samples (zero of five) for cats fed CHI. These shifts in faecal bacterial populations compared with feeding a whole-prey diet may impact the functional capacities of the microbiota and its interaction with the host. Further research is warranted to determine the impacts of these shifts on long-term health of domestic cats.

Helminth infections and gut microbiota – a feline perspective

“…These data are in general agreement with the results of previous studies, albeit with some discrepancies linked to the relative contribution of individual phyla of bacteria to the overall composition of the feline commensal flora [32–35]. For instance, the phylum Firmicutes was mostly prevalent in the faecal microbiota of domestic cats fed either a chicken-based extruded diet or raw chicken [36], while bacteria belonging to the Bacteroides group were the most prevalent in the intestinal microbiota of healthy felines fed a commercially available diet whose specific composition was not specified [32]. While these inconsistencies are likely to be linked to dietary differences between the cat cohorts enrolled in our study (fed an identical diet of commercial dry food but allowed to hunt small preys) and those from previous trials [32, 36], methodological differences may also have contributed to these discrepancies.…”

“…For instance, the phylum Firmicutes was mostly prevalent in the faecal microbiota of domestic cats fed either a chicken-based extruded diet or raw chicken [36], while bacteria belonging to the Bacteroides group were the most prevalent in the intestinal microbiota of healthy felines fed a commercially available diet whose specific composition was not specified [32]. While these inconsistencies are likely to be linked to dietary differences between the cat cohorts enrolled in our study (fed an identical diet of commercial dry food but allowed to hunt small preys) and those from previous trials [32, 36], methodological differences may also have contributed to these discrepancies. Indeed, while data from our study was generated using Illumina sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA, Tun et al [32] utilised whole metagenome sequencing (i.e.…”

“…Indeed, while data from our study was generated using Illumina sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA, Tun et al [32] utilised whole metagenome sequencing (i.e. shotgun pyrosequencing, 454) of bacterial DNA; finally, V3-V4 sequences characterised in the investigation by Kerr et al [36] were generated by pyrosequencing (454). Given the profound differences in detection of bacterial species by whole metagenome shotgun vs 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing [37], as well as the fact that the Illumina and 454 technologies are characterised by known differences in sequencing coverage [38, 39], which ultimately affects the overall number of times each OTU is sampled in a metagenomic survey [40], direct comparisons between our results and those from previous studies [32, 36], are unwarranted.…”

Pre- and post-weaning diet alters the faecal metagenome in the cat with differences in vitamin and carbohydrate metabolism gene abundances

“…Fusobacterium are commonly found in the faeces of healthy dogs3233. Furthermore, because Fusobacterium are proteolytic bacteria34 they have been associated with high protein diets in kittens35, adult cats536 and dogs37. Bacteroides are known to utilise host mucin glycans3839 in the absence of dietary carbohydrates, which may also partially explain the success of these bacteria in kittens fed the canned diet.…”

Characterization of gut microbiomes of household pets in the United States using a direct-to-consumer approach

“…Existing studies of pet microbiomes have several limitations. First, many studies tend to have limited sample sizes (<10 animals) [10,13,16,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Second, methodologies used to characterize and quantify gut microbial populations vary significantly between studies.…”