A study offers new insight on how the gut bacteria of dogs interact with a healthy vs. unhealthy GI tract, which could contribute to the development of new therapies for GI diseases in both dogs and humans.

In a study published on Oct. 31 in PLOS ONE, Amanda Blake, a doctoral student with the CVM’s Gastrointestinal Laboratory, measured the levels of bacterial metabolic products — fecal lactate and secondary bile acids (BA) — in the fecal matter of dogs with different gastrointestinal (GI) conditions.

Fecal lactate and secondary BA are both substances made by bacteria, and the concentrations at which they are present in fecal matter can inform researchers about the activity of bacteria in the GI tract. The different levels of these substances in a diseased host vs. a healthy host can inform researchers of how GI bacteria act in diseased vs healthy environments, as well as how GI bacteria interact with different diseases.

In her study, Blake found higher levels of lactate and lower levels of secondary BA in the feces of dogs with chronic enteropathy (CE) and dogs with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). This is noteworthy since, although these two diseases have different symptoms and causes of disease, the bacterial outputs of their gut microbiota appear to be similar.

«The goal was to look at the bacteria and then also products that the bacteria make. These metabolites, which are lactate and secondary bile acids, reveal similarities across GI diseases that are very different physiologically,» Blake said.

These findings can help the community better understand interactions between GI microbiota and disease.

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