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. 2023 Nov 21;13(23):3594.
doi: 10.3390/ani13233594.

A Comparison of the Oral Microbiota in Healthy Dogs and Dogs with Oral Tumors

Anja Lisjak  1 , Bruna Correa Lopes  2 , Rachel Pilla  2 , Ana Nemec  1 , Jan S Suchodolski  2 , Nataša Tozon  1
Affiliations

A Comparison of the Oral Microbiota in Healthy Dogs and Dogs with Oral Tumors

Anja Lisjak et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

The aim of this study was to further describe the oral microbiota of healthy dogs by DNA shotgun sequencing and compare those to dogs with oral tumors. Oral swabs (representative of all niches of the oral cavity) were collected from healthy dogs (n = 24) and from dogs with different oral tumors (n = 7). DNA was extracted from the swabs and shotgun metagenomic sequencing was performed. Only minor differences in microbiota composition were observed between the two groups. At the phylum level, the Bacteroidota, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteriota, Desulfobacterota and Firmicutes were most abundant in both groups. Observed Operational Taxonomic Units-OTUs (species richness) was significantly higher in the healthy patients, but there was no significant difference in the Shannon diversity index between the groups. No significant difference was found in beta diversity between the groups. The core oral microbiota consisted of 67 bacterial species that were identified in all 24 healthy dogs. Our study provides further insight into the composition of the oral microbiota of healthy dogs and in dogs with oral tumors.

Keywords: DNA shotgun sequencing; biopsy; dogs; oral microbiota; oral swab; oral tumors.

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Conflict of interest statement

J.S.S., B.C.L. and R.P. are employees of the Gastrointestinal Laboratory at Texas A&M University which offers microbiome testing on a fee-for-service basis. The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest related to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Heat map representing the relative abundance of the identified phyla in healthy dogs and those with oral tumors.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Alpha diversity metrics of healthy dogs and those with oral tumors: Chao1 (A), Shannon diversity index (B), and observed OTUs (C).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) plot based on Bray–Curtis distances. Samples are color-coded based on the group classification. Red: healthy dogs. Blue: dogs with oral tumor. The ANOSIM analysis did not reveal clustering between groups (R = 0.126; P = 0.867).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Differences in relative abundance at the phylum level. Difference noted only in the higher abundance of Firmicutes_C (P = 0.0249, Q = 0.2988) in the healthy group; however, statistical significance was lost after adjustment for multiple comparisons.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Differences in relative abundance at the family level: healthy dogs had higher abundance of Erysipelotrichaceae (P = 0.0201, Q = 0.4355) and Leptotrichiaceae (P = 0.0002, Q = 0.0130); Weeksellaceae family was found more abundant in dogs with oral tumors (P = 0.0473, Q = 0.5640).
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