Pets in the household increase ocular surface microbiome exchanges between dog and owner

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Human-Animal Interactions
• One Health

Background:

• Increasing pet ownership highlights microbial exchange between humans and animals.
• Previous studies show shared skin, oral, and gut microbiomes between dogs and owners.
• The ocular surface microbiome's shared characteristics between dogs and owners remain understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the sharing of the ocular surface microbiome between dogs and owners.
• To characterize dog and owner ocular microbiomes.
• To evaluate lifestyle factors impacting microbiome similarity.

Main Methods:

• Collected conjunctival swabs from 15 dog-owner pairs.
• Performed DNA extraction and 16S rRNA V3-V4 gene sequencing.
• Analyzed microbiome composition, alpha diversity, and beta diversity (weighted UniFrac, unweighted UniFrac, Bray-Curtis).

Main Results:

• Dog and owner ocular microbiomes showed similar overall composition (phyla, families) but distinct clusters.
• Dogs possessed a significantly more diverse ocular microbiome than owners.
• Smaller dogs exhibited greater microbiome sharing with owners compared to larger dogs.
• Pairs cohabiting with other pets displayed more similar microbiome compositions.

Conclusions:

• Significant sharing of the ocular surface microbiome exists between dogs and owners.
• Microbiome similarity is influenced by dog size and the presence of other pets in the household.
• Findings support a One Health perspective on understanding human-animal microbial interactions.