Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States of America.
Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 Dec 1;17(12):e0268730. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268730. eCollection 2022.
Feline upper respiratory tract disease (FURTD), often caused by infections etiologies, is a multifactorial syndrome affecting feline populations worldwide. Because of its highly transmissible nature, infectious FURTD is most prevalent anywhere cats are housed in groups such as animal shelters, and is associated with negative consequences such as decreasing adoption rates, intensifying care costs, and increasing euthanasia rates. Understanding the etiology and pathophysiology of FURTD is thus essential to best mitigate the negative consequences of this disease. Clinical signs of FURTD include acute respiratory disease, with a small fraction of cats developing chronic sequelae. It is thought that nasal mucosal microbiome changes play an active role in the development of acute clinical signs, but it remains unknown if the microbiome may play a role in the development and progression of chronic clinical disease. To address the knowledge gap surrounding how microbiomes link to chronic FURTD, we asked if microbial community structure of upper respiratory and gut microbiomes differed between cats with chronic FURTD signs and clinically normal cats. We selected 8 households with at least one cat exhibiting chronic clinical FURTD, and simultaneously collected samples from cohabitating clinically normal cats. Microbial community structure was assessed via 16S rDNA sequencing of both gut and nasal microbiome communities. Using a previously described ecophylogenetic method, we identified 136 and 89 microbial features within gut and nasal microbiomes respectively that significantly associated with presence of active FURTD clinical signs in cats with a history of chronic signs. Overall, we find that nasal and gut microbial community members associate with the presence of chronic clinical course, but more research is needed to confirm our observations.
猫上呼吸道疾病（FURTD）通常由感染病因引起，是一种影响全球猫科动物种群的多因素综合征。由于其高度传染性，传染性 FURTD 在任何猫群聚居的地方最为普遍，如动物收容所，并且与负面后果相关，如降低收养率、增加护理成本和增加安乐死率。因此，了解 FURTD 的病因和病理生理学对于最大限度地减轻这种疾病的负面影响至关重要。FURTD 的临床症状包括急性呼吸道疾病，一小部分猫会发展出慢性后遗症。人们认为鼻黏膜微生物组的变化在急性临床症状的发展中起着积极的作用，但尚不清楚微生物组是否在慢性临床疾病的发展和进展中起作用。为了解决围绕微生物组与慢性 FURTD 之间联系的知识空白，我们询问了患有慢性 FURTD 症状和临床正常的猫之间上呼吸道和肠道微生物组的微生物群落结构是否存在差异。我们选择了 8 个有至少一只猫表现出慢性临床 FURTD 的家庭，并同时从同居的临床正常猫中收集样本。通过对上呼吸道和鼻腔微生物组的 16S rDNA 测序来评估微生物群落结构。使用先前描述的生态系统发生方法，我们分别在肠道和鼻腔微生物组中鉴定出 136 个和 89 个与患有慢性 FURTD 病史的猫中活跃 FURTD 临床症状存在显著相关的微生物特征。总的来说，我们发现鼻腔和肠道微生物群落成员与慢性临床病程的存在相关，但需要更多的研究来证实我们的观察结果。
