Comparison of the bacterial flora of the duodenum in healthy cats and catswith signs of gastrointestinal tract disease

Objective-To determine whether a colony environment predisposes healthy cat s to high bacterial counts, including counts of obligate anaerobes, in the duodenum and whether increased numbers of bacteria could be round in the du odenum of cats with signs of chronic gastrointestinal tract disease. Design-Prospective study. Animals-20 healthy control cats (10 from a colony environment and 10 pet ca ts) and 19 cats with a history of chronic gastrointestinal tract disease. Procedure-Undiluted duodenal fluid was quantitatively and qualitatively ass essed by bacteriologic culture under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Seru m concentrations of cobalamin and folate were also measured. Results-Significant differences were not detected in the numbers of bacteri a found in the duodenum of cats housed in a colony environment, compared wi th pet cats fed an identical diet prior to sampling. All healthy cats were, therefore, combined into 1 control group. Compared with healthy cats, cats with clinical signs of gastrointestinal tract disease had significantly lo wer counts of microaerophilic bacteria, whereas total, anaerobic, and aerob ic bacterial counts were not significantly different. None of the cats with disease had total bacterial counts higher than expected from the range est ablished in the control cats. Differences were not detected in regard to se rum folate or cobalamin concentrations between diseased and healthy cats. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-These findings indicated that healthy co lony cats and pet cats have high numbers of bacteria in the duodenum, inclu ding high numbers of obligate anaerobes. Our findings also suggest that bac terial overgrowth in the small intestine is not a common clinical syndrome in cats with chronic nonobstructive gastrointestinal tract disease.