Prevalence of Clostridioides difficile in Canine Feces and Its Association with Intestinal Dysbiosis

Melanie Werner; Patricia Eri Ishii; Rachel Pilla; Jonathan A Lidbury; Joerg M Steiner; Kathrin Busch-Hahn; Stefan Unterer; Jan S Suchodolski

doi:10.3390/ani13152441

Prevalence of Clostridioides difficile in Canine Feces and Its Association with Intestinal Dysbiosis

Animals (Basel). 2023 Jul 28;13(15):2441. doi: 10.3390/ani13152441.

Authors

Melanie Werner¹, Patricia Eri Ishii², Rachel Pilla², Jonathan A Lidbury², Joerg M Steiner², Kathrin Busch-Hahn³, Stefan Unterer¹, Jan S Suchodolski²

Affiliations

¹ Clinic for Small Animal Internal Medicine, Vetsuisse Faculty, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
² Gastrointestinal Laboratory, Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 4474, USA.
³ Clinic of Small Animal Internal Medicine, Centre for Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Ludwig Maximilians University, 80539 Munich, Germany.

Abstract

The role of Clostridioides (C.) difficile as an enteropathogen in dogs is controversial. In humans, intestinal bile acid-dysmetabolism is associated with C. difficile prevalence. The relationship between fecal qPCR-based dysbiosis index (DI) and especially the abundance of bile acid-converting Clostridium hiranonis with the presence of C. difficile in dogs was explored across the following 4 cohorts: 358 fecal samples submitted for routine diagnostic work-up, 33 dogs with chronic enteropathy, 14 dogs with acute diarrhea, and 116 healthy dogs. Dogs that tested positive for C. difficile had significantly higher DI (median, 4.4 (range from 0.4 to 8.6)) and lower C. hiranonis (median, 0.1 (range from 0.0 to 7.5) logDNA/g) than dogs that tested negative for C. difficile (median DI, -1 (range from -7.2 to 8.9); median C. hiranonis abundance, 6.2 (range from 0.1 to 7.5) logDNA/g; p < 0.0001, respectively). In 33 dogs with CE and 14 dogs with acute diarrhea, the treatment response did not differ between C. difficile-positive and -negative dogs. In the group of clinically healthy dogs, 9/116 tested positive for C. difficile, and 6/9 of these had also an abnormal DI. In conclusion, C. difficile is strongly linked to intestinal dysbiosis and lower C. hiranonis levels in dogs, but its presence does not necessitate targeted treatment.

Keywords: Clostridium; dog; enteropathogens; microbiome; microbiota.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding. JSS is the Purina PetCare Endowed Chair for Microbiome Research, and microbiome research at the Gastrointestinal Laboratory is in part supported through the Purina PetCare Research Excellence Fund.