2016 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

Fecal and oropharyngeal swabs yielded a meanAESD of 65,652 AE 26,069 and 20,632 AE 18,499 reads/sample, respectively. BAL and blood yielded lower coverage at 1,489 AE 1,822 and 269 AE 43 reads/sample, respectively. Oropharyngeal and fecal swabs were significantly richer than BAL (mean number OTUs 93, 88 and 36, respectively; P < 0.001) with no significant difference (P = 0.180) in richness between time points. Fusobacterium sp., Campylobacter sp., and Bacteroides sp. were predominant fecal taxa. Pseudomonas sp. was most abundant in the oropharynx (day 0) and Pasteurellaceae and Porphyromonas sp. were most abundant weeks 3&8. In BAL, Pseudomonas sp., Bradyrhizobiaceae, and Sphingobacteriaceae predominated day 0 and week 3 with abundance of Pseudomonas sp. declining week 8. Bradyrhizobiaceae and Sphingobacteriaceae were predominant taxa in blood. PCA revealed distinct microbiomes in each site; however, blood had marked compositional similarity with BAL. Samples clustered more by time than by individual, with oropharyngeal swabs having subjectively greater variation than other samples.