Comparative Assessment of Faecal Microbiota in Healthy and Epileptic Dogs

Authors : Nilgün Aksoy, Şeyda Yaman, Alper Çiftci

Pages : 79-86

Doi:10.35229/jaes.1598473

View : 36 | Download : 16

Publication Date : 2025-01-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Idiopathic epilepsy is a neurological condition affecting dogs and cats characterized by repeated seizures for which no cause other than a hypothesized genetic predisposition can be identified. The aim of this study was to comparatively evaluate the content of mesophilic aerobic bacteria, coliform bacteria, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus spp., Staphylococcus aureus and Lactobacillus spp. in the faecal flora of healthy dogs and dogs diagnosed with epilepsy. Feces of 10 healthy dogs and 10 dogs diagnosed with epilepsy were used as study material. Selective isolation and counts were performed with inoculating the faecal samples were on Tryptic Soy Agar for mesophilic aerobic bacteria, MacConkey Agar for coliform bacteria, Eosin Methylene Blue Agar for E. coli, Bile Esculin Agar for Enterococcus spp., Mannitol Salt Agar for S. aureus and De Man, Rogosa and Sharpe Agar for Lactobacillus spp. The numbers of mesophilic aerobic bacteria, coliform bacteria, E. coli, Enterococcus spp., S. aureus and Lactobacillus spp. were 6.6x106, 2.6x105, 1.4x105, 1.6x105, 3.2x104 and 4.1 x 104 cfu/mg in the faecal flora of healthy dogs; and 9.0x106, 5.0x105, 2.8x105, 6.4x105, 6.3x104, and 1.2x104 cfu/mg in dogs diagnosed with epilepsy, respectively. As a result, there was a decrease in the number of Lactobacillus spp. in the faecal flora of dogs with epilepsy compared to healthy dogs, while the number of other bacteria increased. It was concluded that adding probiotic bacteria to the diet of epileptic dogs could help regulate the gut microbiota and reduce the severity and frequency of seizures.
Keywords : dışkı florası, idiyopatik epilepsi, köpek

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