Two probiotic strains have been discovered by researchers as effective in decreasing weight in obese dogs, according to a study published recently in Microbiology Spectrum, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
In the new study, the research team investigated metabolic diseases in companion animals and set out to identify probiotics suitable for long-term and safe treatment. “The initial challenge involved selecting specific metabolic diseases for examination, leading us to focus on the prevalent issue of ‘obesity in pets,’” said study principal investigator Younghoon Kim, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Life Science (CALS), Seoul National University, in Korea.
Notably, the global prevalence of obesity is higher in older pets, reaching approximately 50% of the total pet population across all age groups. A significant portion of these pets is already undergoing treatments, including dietary interventions.
“Given this context, our team initiated experiments with the primary goal of identifying probiotics capable of reducing the body fat percentage in pets,” Kim said. One of Kim’s primary objectives is to raise awareness about the pressing need for further research on probiotics tailored for pets, emphasizing the vast array of probiotic types that hold potential applications.
The Role of Probiotics in Pet Health
Beyond just acknowledging their role in addressing specific issues, Kim advocates for recognizing the broader therapeutic possibilities that probiotics present, spanning a wide spectrum of diseases affecting companion animals. “By promoting this awareness, my aspiration is to catalyze increased attention, funding, and collaborative efforts in the scientific community to explore the expansive landscape of probiotic applications in pet health,” Kim said.
To identify suitable probiotic candidates for companion animals, Kim and colleagues scrutinized the variations in the composition of intestinal microbiota between young and old dogs, revealing a decline in the population of lactic DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.02552-23