AUTHOR=Sabbioni Alberto , Ferrario Chiara , Milani Christian , Mancabelli Leonardo , Riccardi Enzo , Di Ianni Francesco , Beretti Valentino , Superchi Paola , Ossiprandi Maria C. 

TITLE=Modulation of the Bifidobacterial Communities of the Dog Microbiota by Zeolite

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2016

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01491

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2016.01491

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>During last decades canine health and well being is becoming an important issue for human owners. In dogs, several factors including diet, pathogenic bacterial and stress conditions can affect the composition of the gut microbiota. In this study, we evaluated the effect of dietary chabazitic zeolitite (CZ) supplementation on the contribution of bifidobacteria to the fecal microbiota in training hunting dogs. Fecal microbiota cataloging based on 16S rRNA microbial profiling analyses highlighted an increase of <italic>Lactobacillus</italic> and <italic>Bifidobacterium</italic> in animals treated with CZ, with a simultaneous decrease of pathogens associated with dog gastrointestinal infections, such as <italic>Klebsiella</italic> and <italic>Enterobacter</italic>. A detailed profiling of the bifidobacterial population of dogs receiving CZ based on the ITS-based sequencing approach, revealed an enhancement bifidobacterial of species typical of animals such as <italic>Bifidobacterium animalis</italic> and <italic>B. pseudolongum</italic>. Moreover, these analyses identified the occurrence of putative new bifidobacterial taxa in both treated and untreated samples.</p>