INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF TRAZODONE ON THE GUT MICROBIOME OF SHELTER DOGS

Abstract

The gut microbiome is a diverse population of microorganisms that exist naturally in animals and has been demonstrated over the years to have a major role in animal health. Studies have shown that antibiotic medications can significantly shift the microbiome by changing the abundance of bacteria present, and recently scientists began looking into how other medications may alter the gut microbiome. One category under examination is psychoactive drugs, which alter the function of the central nervous system. In humans, there has been mixed information regarding the effect of antidepressants and whether these drugs can significantly shift the microbial population or not. However, there are very few studies available that have even studied the basics of the gut microbiome of canines, let alone when canines are on psychoactive medications. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of trazodone, an anti-anxiety psychoactive medication on the canine gut microbiome. Fecal samples were collected from the Pima Animal Care Center (PACC), DNA extracted, the V4-V5 region of the rRNA gene amplified, Illumina sequencing, and QIIME2 software used for microbiome analysis of all the samples. The results of this study found no significant differences between the gut microbiome of dogs treated with trazodone vs non-treated dogs.