The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of daily feeding of an oral care chew on the composition of canine supragingival plaque microbiota. Twelve beagle dogs were recruited to the randomized cross-over study. The dogs were fed one of two dietary regimes, both consisting of a commercially available wet and dry diet mix, either with or without daily supplementation with an oral care chew. After each 28-day test phase, supragingival plaque samples were collected and processed via Illumina sequencing to determine the microbiota composition. A comparative analysis of bacterial species associated with health and periodontal disease, identified from prior clinical studies, revealed differences between the dietary regimes. Consumption of the daily oral care chew, resulted in a significant increase in proportion of 6 health associated taxa but only 3 disease associated taxa compared to no chew. In contrast, 8 disease and 1 health associated taxa showed increased proportions for no chew versus the oral care chew.

Daily feeding of the oral care chew tested in this study has therefore been shown to increase the proportion of health associated bacteria, over bacteria associated with periodontal disease, in supragingival plaque compared to no chew. By influencing plaque microbiota towards a bias for health associated bacteria, feeding of the oral care chew provides a means to reduce the prevalence of bacterial species shown to be associated with periodontal disease in dogs.

这项研究的目的是调查每天喂食口腔护理咀嚼物对犬龈上龈菌斑微生物群组成的影响。招募十二只比格犬进入随机交叉研究。给狗喂食两种饮食方案中的一种，它们均由市售的湿和干饮食混合物组成，有或没有每日补充口腔护理咀嚼物。在每个28天的测试阶段之后，收集龈上菌斑样品，并通过Illumina测序进行处理，以确定微生物群组成。根据先前的临床研究确定的与健康和牙周疾病相关的细菌种类的比较分析表明，饮食方式之间存在差异。日常口腔护理消耗量，与没有咀嚼相比，导致与健康相关的6个分类单元的比例显着增加，但与疾病相关的3个分类单元的比例却大大增加。相反，与口腔护理咀嚼相比，8种疾病和1种与健康相关的分类单元显示无咀嚼的比例增加。

因此，与没有咀嚼相比，在本研究中测试的日常喂养的口腔护理咀嚼物在龈上菌斑中的健康相关细菌的比例高于与牙周疾病相关的细菌的比例。通过使菌斑微生物群趋向于与健康相关的细菌有偏倚，喂食口腔护理咀嚼物可提供一种减少狗中牙周疾病相关细菌种类的流行的手段。