Upper and lower respiratory tract microbiota in horses: bacterial communities associated with health and mild asthma (inflammatory airway disease) and effects of dexamethasone

BMC Microbiology

Research Article

Edouard Timsit¹  Renaud Léguillette¹  Stephanie L. Bond¹  Matthew Workentine¹  Trevor Alexander² 

[1] Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada;Lethbridge Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge, AB, Canada;

关键词: Equine;    Metagenomic;    16sRNA;    Transtracheal wash;    Nasopharyngeal swab;    Bronchoalveolar lavage;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12866-017-1092-5

 received in 2017-03-01, accepted in 2017-08-14,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe microbial composition of the equine respiratory tract, and differences due to mild equine asthma (also called Inflammatory Airway Disease (IAD)) have not been reported. The primary treatment for control of IAD in horses are corticosteroids. The objectives were to characterize the upper and lower respiratory tract microbiota associated with respiratory health and IAD, and to investigate the effects of dexamethasone on these bacterial communities using high throughput sequencing.ResultsThe respiratory microbiota of horses was dominated by four major phyla, Proteobacteria (43.85%), Actinobacteria (21.63%), Firmicutes (16.82%), and Bacteroidetes (13.24%). Fifty genera had a relative abundance > 0.1%, with Sphingomonas and Pantoea being the most abundant. The upper and lower respiratory tract microbiota differed in healthy horses, with a decrease in richness in the lower airways, and 2 OTUs that differed in abundance. There was a separation between bacterial communities in the lower respiratory tract of healthy and IAD horses; 6 OTUs in the tracheal community had different abundance with disease status, with Streptococcus being increased in IAD horses. Treatment with dexamethasone had an effect on the lower respiratory tract microbiota of both heathy and IAD horses, with 8 OTUs increasing in abundance (including Streptococcus) and 1 OTU decreasing.ConclusionsThe lower respiratory tract microbiota differed between healthy and IAD horses. Further research on the role of Streptococcus in IAD is warranted. Dexamethasone treatment affected the lower respiratory tract microbiota, which suggests that control of bacterial overgrowth in IAD horses treated with dexamethasone could be part of the treatment strategy.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017