2018 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program: Seattle, Washington, June 14 - 15, 2018

In the IBD group, clinical disease severity (CIBDAI) at baseline was scored as moderate to severe. All dogs achieved partial or complete remission of clinical signs by 3 or 8 weeks of treatment, and CIBDAI scores were significantly reduced after 8 weeks of treatment (p < 0.001). At baseline, dogs with IBD showed differences in microbial composition when compared to healthy dogs, as unweighted Uni-Frac distances demonstrated significantly different beta diversity between groups (p=0.001, R=0.462). Differences in the IBD group included increased Firmicutes (p < 0.001) and Actinobacteria (p=0.027), and reduced Bacteroidetes (p < 0.001), Fusobacteria (p < 0.001) and Proteobacteria (p=0.006). Within the IBD group, beta diversity was still significantly changed at 8 weeks (p < 0.001) compared to healthy controls. At the 1 year follow up, diversity metrics placed the microbiome of treated dogs closer to that of healthy dogs, but they were still significantly different from those of healthy controls (p=0.003, R=0.258).