S. Wernimont, J. L. Radosevich, M. I. Jackson, E. Ephraim, D. Badri, J. MacLeay, D. Jewell, and J. Suchodolski (2020) reviewed evidence linking diet, the gut microbiome, and health in companion animals. The gastrointestinal (GI) microbiome acts as a metabolically active organ that both affects and is affected by nutrition.
The authors emphasized that food provides the substrates for microbial metabolism, while the microbiome, in turn, facilitates nutrient digestion and postbiotic production. These postbiotics—bacterially derived compounds—play crucial roles in pet health, influencing everything from energy metabolism to immune responses.
Pet diets traditionally provide carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, but increasingly include microbiome-targeted ingredients such as prebiotics and probiotics. Each of these elements, and their proportions, affects the microbiome’s composition and function. The review highlighted evidence linking nutrition-driven microbiome changes not only to GI diseases, but also to allergies, oral health, obesity, diabetes, and kidney disease.
The review concluded that a deeper understanding of how diet modulates microbiome function could open new strategies for enhancing health and resilience in dogs and cats. Nutrition is not just feeding—it is actively shaping the microbial ecosystem that underpins overall well-being.
Source: Wernimont, S., Radosevich, J. L., Jackson, M. I., Ephraim, E., Badri, D., MacLeay, J., Jewell, D., & Suchodolski, J. (2020). The Effects of Nutrition on the Gastrointestinal Microbiome of Cats and Dogs: Impact on Health and Disease. Frontiers in Microbiology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.01261
