Fecal microbiome and predicted gene function in Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs fed with either a bone and raw food diet or a commercial diet

The mammalian intestine is inhabited by a set of microorganisms (i.e., bacteria, viruses, fungi, archaea), named microbiota. Various different conditions can influence the microbiota with one of those being diet. The present study investigated the effect of a BARF diet on the fecal microbiome and on fecal functional gene content predictions comparing two groups of four Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs each, fed with either a BARF or a commercial diet. BARF diet dogs were fed with kibble from about 6 months, and the group was composed of 4 dogs, 2 males (A2, A4) and 2 females (A1, A3); the commercial diet group was composed of 4 dogs, 1 male (B1) and 3 females (B2, B3, B4). A1, A2, and A4 were all puppies from the same litter, A3 was the mother of those puppies; within the BARF group, B1 and B4 were the parents of B3; and B1 was also the father of B2. Living environments were different between and within groups. DNA was extracted using a commercial kit and analyzed by next generation sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. The data was analyzed using the freeware QIIME. PICRUSt was used to predict the functional gene content. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) was used to identify significantly altered bacterial taxa.