Study of the microbial diversity of the canine mouth and skin of West Highland White Terriers

The study aimed at disclosing the bacterial and fungal oral and cutaneous microbiota of West Highland White Terriers, a dog breed predisposed for canine atopic dermatitis (CAD). For this purpose amplicon libraries generated with V3-V4 primers targeting the 16S rRNA gene and with ITS2 primers targeting the internal transcribed spacer 2 were sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq platform using the v3 600 cycle kit. This birth cohort study was conducted to assess the microbiota of cohabiting family members from independent breeders and the impact of environmental factors and the mode of delivery on the later development of CAD.