AUTHOR=Discepolo Dakota , Kelley Russell , Watson Adrian , Perry Erin 

TITLE=Impacts to canine dermal microbiota associated with repeated bathing

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Veterinary Science

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2023.1204159

DOI=10.3389/fvets.2023.1204159

ISSN=2297-1769

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Introduction</title><p>Working dogs routinely operate in environmental conditions which may necessitate daily bathing to remove contaminants or soilage. The impacts of frequent or repeated bathing on the canine dermal microbiota are unknown. The objective of this study was to characterize changes in canine dermal microbial populations following repeated daily bathing.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>Labrador retrievers (<italic>n</italic> = 16) were bathed daily using a dilute dish detergent solution (1.6% detergent solution) over the course of 14 days. Dermal microbial DNA was collected <italic>via</italic> sterile swabs (<italic>n</italic> = 142) taken at days 0, 7, 14, 16, 21, 28, 35, 42, and 49 and analyzed for alpha diversity, beta diversity and relative abundance to assess changes in the dermal microbiota <italic>via</italic> 16 s sequencing.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>Results indicate that daily bathing significantly increased Shannon diversity, Chao1, and several rare amplicon sequence variants. Although typically reported in highest abundance, relative abundance was decreased in the phyla Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05).</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>Repeated daily bathing with dilute dish detergent significantly reduced normal healthy dermal microbial taxa and created significant changes in the dermal microbiota of canines. Disruption to the canine dermal microbiota may cause negative impacts to canine dermal health and require further investigation.</p></sec>