title: Diverse bacterial communities exist on canine skin and are impacted by cohabitation and time.
abstract: It has previously been shown that domestic dogs and their household owners share bacterial populations, and that sharing of bacteria between humans is facilitated through the presence of dogs in the household. However, less is known regarding the bacterial communities of dogs, how these communities vary by location and over time, and how cohabitation of dogs themselves influences their bacterial community. Furthermore, the effects of factors such as breed, hair coat length, sex, shedding, and age on the canine skin microbiome is unknown. This study sampled the skin bacterial communities of 40 dogs belonging to 20 households longitudinally across three seasons (spring, summer, and winter). Significant differences in bacterial community structure between samples were identified when stratified by season, but not by dog sex, age, breed, hair type, or skin site. Cohabitating dogs were more likely to share bacteria of the skin than non-cohabitating dogs. Similar to human bacterial microbiomes, dogs' microbiomes were more similar to their own microbiomes over time than to microbiomes of other individuals. Dogs sampled during the same season were also more similar to each other than to dogs from different seasons, irrespective of household. However, there were very few core operational taxonomic units (OTUs) identified across all dogs sampled. Taxonomic classification revealedPropionibacterium acnesandHaemophilussp. as key members of the dog skin bacterial community, along withCorynebacteriumsp. andStaphylococcus epidermidis. This study shows that the skin bacterial community structure of dogs is highly individualized, but can be shared among dogs through cohabitation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, University of Minnesota , Saint Paul, MN , USA.
authors.forename: Sheila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota , Saint Paul, MN , USA.
authors.forename: Jonathan B
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3709-3362
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Clayton
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota , Saint Paul, MN , USA.
authors.forename: Jessica L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Danzeisen
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Institute, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, MN , USA.
authors.forename: Tonya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Institute, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, MN , USA.
authors.forename: Hu
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4384-3804
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Knights
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota , Saint Paul, MN , USA.
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Johnson
keywords: Bacterial community; Canine; Co-habitation; Longitudinal; Microbiome; Skin