{"doi":"10.1111/cea.14303","title":"The impact of prenatal dog keeping on infant gut microbiota development","abstract":"INTRODUCTION: Prenatal and early-life dog exposure has been linked to reduced childhood allergy and asthma. A potential mechanism includes altered early immune development in response to changes in the gut microbiome among dog-exposed infants. We thus sought to determine whether infants born into homes with indoor dog(s) exhibit altered gut microbiome development. METHODS: Pregnant women living in homes with dogs or in pet-free homes were recruited in southeast Michigan. Infant stool samples were collected at intervals between 1 week and 18 months after birth and microbiome was assessed using 16S ribosomal sequencing. Perinatal maternal vaginal/rectal swabs and stool samples were sequenced from a limited number of mothers. Mixed effect adjusted models were used to assess stool microbial community trajectories comparing infants from dog-keeping versus pet-free homes with adjustment for relevant covariates. RESULTS: Infant gut microbial composition among vaginally born babies became less similar to the maternal vaginal/rectal microbiota and more similar to the maternal gut microbiota with age-related accumulation of bacterial species with advancing age. Stool samples from dog-exposed infants were microbially more diverse (p = .041) through age 18 months with enhanced diversity most apparent between 3 and 6 months of age. Statistically significant effects of dog exposure on β-diversity metrics were restricted to formula-fed children. Across the sample collection period, dog exposure was associated with Fusobacterium genera enrichment, as well as enrichment of Collinsella, Ruminococcus, Clostridaceae and Lachnospiraceae OTUs. CONCLUSION: Prenatal/early-life dog exposure is associated with an altered gut microbiome during infancy and supports a potential mechanism explaining lessened atopy and asthma risk. Further research directly linking specific dog-attributable changes in the infant gut microbiome to the risk of allergic disorders is needed.","journal":"Clinical & Experimental Allergy","year":2023,"id":322952,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":38,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9522,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":334928,"name":"Alexandra R. Sitarik","orcid":"0000-0001-8957-389X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1037629,"name":"Doug Fadrosh","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":95484,"name":"Suzanne Havstad","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":868831,"name":"Kyra Jones","orcid":"0000-0002-3079-2235","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":309430,"name":"Brent Davidson","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1037630,"name":"Salvatore Finazzo","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":294197,"name":"Ganesa Wegienka","orcid":"0000-0001-7281-1193","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1037631,"name":"Kimberley J. Woodcroft","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":289672,"name":"Nicholas W. Lukacs","orcid":"0000-0003-2403-6481","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":306768,"name":"Albert M. Levin","orcid":"0000-0002-6993-1669","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":306767,"name":"Dennis R. Ownby","orcid":"0000-0003-0944-6466","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":306763,"name":"Christine Cole Johnson","orcid":"0000-0002-6864-6604","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":233436,"name":"Susan V. Lynch","orcid":"0000-0001-5695-7336","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":306765,"name":"Edward M. Zoratti","orcid":"0000-0002-2626-0682","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":868830,"name":"Ariane Panzer","orcid":"0000-0003-2879-9048","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":54,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:07:47.432636Z","pmid":"36916778","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}