Characterization and manipulation of bacterial microbiomes in domestic animals

动物在身体的不同部位拥有复杂、多样且通常定义不清的微生物种群。虽然定义不明确，但很明显，这些种群（微生物群）及其遗传元素和相互作用的总和（微生物群）在各种疾病的发展和预防中起着关键作用，包括传统上不被认为是传染性的疾病。新技术彻底改变了我们对人体微生物组的理解，从而为开发和测试新的非抗菌动物预防和治疗方法创造了独特的机会。安全有效的生物治疗（以微生物为基础）方法预防或治疗疾病的潜力非常吸引人，特别是考虑到抗菌素耐药性的流行既限制了现有的治疗选择，又加强了对动物中抗菌素使用的审查。然而，只有正确了解宿主的“正常”微生物种群，才能正确开发和评估生物治疗方法。

Animals harbour complex, diverse and typically poorly defined microbial populations at various body sites. While poorly defined, it is clear that these populations (the microbiota) and the sum of their genetic elements and interactions (the microbiome) play critical roles in both development and prevention of various diseases, including disease not classically considered to be infectious. New technologies have revolutionized our understanding of the body's microbiomes, thereby creating unique opportunities for development and testing of novel and non-antimicrobial preventive and therapeutic methods for animals. The potential for safe and effective biotherapeutic (microbial-based) approaches for prevention or treatment of disease is highly appealing, particularly given the epidemic of antimicrobial resistance that is both limiting available treatment options and increasing scrutiny of antimicrobial use in animals. Yet, only with proper understanding of the host's 'normal' microbial population can biotherapeutic approaches be properly developed and evaluated. This program will characterize the microbiomes of different anatomical sites of selected domestic animal species, something that will provide important information to help understand how these populations develop and how they can be modified. It will complement preliminary microbiome studies being performed by the Applicant, and his laboratory's expertise in infectious diseases, gastroenterology and probiotic therapy. This program will use recent advances in next generation sequencing and bioinformatics to describe and compare selected microbiomes in piglets, foals and dogs, and to explore the use of biotherapeutic approaches to treatment or prevention of disease. Specific objectives of this program are to characterize development of the fecal microbiome of foals and piglets, to evaluate the effect of fecal transplantation on the development foal and piglet intestinal microbiomes, to evaluate different approaches to fecal transplantation, to characterize the vaginal microbiome of healthy dogs and dogs with recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) to enable development of a potential biotherapeutic approach for prevention of recurrent UTIs.