Short-term effects of a synbiotic diet on thyroid and sex hormones in Sarabi Dogs

Synbiotic products are those Functional foods/feeds that contain both probiotic and prebiotic strains and have health-promoting effects beyond probiotics or prebiotics alone. This study aimed to investigate the effect of synbiotic feed containing the probiotic strain Lactobacillus acidophilus La5 (10¹² cfu/g) and inulin (5%) on changes in Thyroid hormones (T3, T4), TSH, LH, FSH, and Testosterone in male dogs throughout 24 days.

In addition to the basic feed, the dogs in the treatment group also received the synbiotic supplement at 5% in each of their three meals during 24 days. Then, the serum levels of LH, FSH, TSH, and Testosterone were measured with an ELISA kit and finally, the obtained data were statistically analyzed.

The results showed that the consumption of this formulated synbiotic feed had no negative effect on the profile of Thyroid hormones (T3: from 1.09 ± 0.51 to 0.95 ± 0.40 ng/ml [p > 0.05]; and T4: from 6.60 ± 4.33 to 4.70 ± 4.29 µg/dl [p > 0.05]) as well as TSH (from 0.07 ± 0.09 to 0.03 ± 0.00 mIU/L [p > 0.05]), Testosterone (from 1.56 ± 0.66 to 1.26 ± 0.93 ng/ml [p > 0.05]), FSH (from 4.72 ± 1.12 to 11.55 ± 3.42 mIU/ml [p = 0.008]), LH (from 0.56 ± 0.48 to 0.31 ± 0.15 mIU/ml [p > 0.05]), and the changes in the amounts of these hormones was in the normal range during 24 days.

It concluded that the consumption of synbiotic feed (L. acidophilus + inulin, at the rate of 5%) in male dogs has no significant adverse effects were observed within the study period on Thyroid, TSH, and sex hormones and it seems that it may be used for a long time to take health-promoting effects without harming hormonal activities.