PubMed ID (PMID): 26854488
Comments: This study compared the skin surface microbiome at four body sites (axilla, pinna, groin, mouth) in 16 healthy dogs and 14 dogs diagnosed with atopic dermatitis (AD) and associated superficial pyoderma. All atopic dogs were treated with antibiotics, but, in half of these cases, also (as shown by the last supplementary table) with anti-inflammatory drugs; the microbiome was then re-evaluated post-antibiotics and several weeks thereafter. As shown in a previous study (see a previous blog entry, PMID 24421875) the skin of healthy dogs had a more diverse bacterial microbiome than that of dogs with AD. This lower bacterial diversity of atopic dogs was associated with increased proportions of Staphylococcus species (mostly S. pseudintermedius, as expected) and Corynebacterium species. Antibiotic (± anti-allergic) therapy led to a reduction of Staphylococcus populations and re-increase in diversity. Interestingly, the skin lesion scores were correlated with the relative abundance of Staphylococcus species. Finally, and as expected, transepidermal water loss was positively correlated with skin lesion scores, while pH was negatively correlated with lesion grades.
This paper supports previous findings and provides additional information on the similarity between microbiome changes during AD in humans and dogs
