Association between gut microbiota and metabolic health and obesity status in cats

Obesity is a major public health concern in both humans and animals, leading to several meta-bolic complications. Recent human studies have classified obesity into two phenotypes, metaboli-cally healthy (MHO) and metabolically unhealthy (MUO) obesity based on cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors. Patients with MHO lack these risk factors and are protected from the metabolic complications of obesity, whereas those with MUO exhibit the opposite characteristics. Moreover, recent studies have highlighted the possible role of the gut microbiome in determining metabolic health of obese individuals. However, studies on the association between the gut mi-crobiome and obesity and metabolic abnormalities in cats are limited. Therefore, we aimed to examine the association between metabolic health phenotypes and gut microbiota composition and diversity in obese cats. We investigated the hormone and serum biochemistry parameters and composition of the gut microbiota in non-obese (NO), MHO, and MUO groups. The abun-dances of Bifidobacteriaceae, Coriobacteriaceae, and Veillonellaceae were significantly higher in the obese versus NO group, showing a positive correlation with body mass index. The abundance of Ruminococcaceae was significantly higher in the MUO versus NO and MHO groups, showing a positive correlation with TG and total cholesterol levels. Thus, the identification of distinct gut microbiota profiles in cats with MHO and MUO suggests the potential for developing personal-ized, microbiome-targeted interventions to prevent and manage feline obesity with greater effi-cacy tailored to metabolic status.