Monitoring tools and diagnostic methods
AssigneeMars, Incorporated
InventorsZoe V. MARSHALL-JONES, Ruth STAUNTON, Richard HAYDOCK, Ciaran O'FLYNN, Phillip WATSON
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods for assessing a feline's microbiome health are provided. The methods include, inter alia, determining the health of a feline's microbiome comprising quantitation four or more bacterial species and determining the relative abundance of the four or more bacterial species by comparing the abundance with a control data set, wherein an increase or decrease in the abundance can be indicative of an unhealthy microbiome.
Claims16
A method of treating an unhealthy microbiome in a feline in need thereof, the method comprising administering to the feline an effective amount of a functional food, a supplement, a nutraceutical, a live biotherapeutic product, a pharmaceutical composition, or combination thereof;
- wherein a fecal sample or a sample from a gastrointestinal lumen from the feline comprises relative abundances of at least four bacterial species that fall outside a range of the relative abundances of said species in a control data set.
A method of treating an unhealthy microbiome in a feline in need thereof, the method comprising administering to the feline an effective amount of a functional food, a supplement, a nutraceutical, a live biotherapeutic product, a pharmaceutical composition, or a combination thereof;
- wherein a fecal sample or a sample from the gastrointestinal lumen from the feline comprises a Shannon diversity index that falls outside a healthy range.
A method of monitoring the microbiome health in a feline who has undergone a diet change and/or has received a supplement or functional food or a pharmaceutical or nutraceutical composition which is able to change the microbiome composition, comprising determining the health of the microbiome by quantitating four or more bacterial species in a sample obtained from the feline to determine their relative abundance;
- and comparing the relative abundance to the relative abundance of the same species in a control data set;
- wherein an increase or decrease in the abundance of the four or more bacterial species relative to the control data set is indicative of an unhealthy microbiome.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.