Each person carries trillions of bacteria in the interiors. And how the situation at pets is?
Four biologists decided to find out it. Their project which is carried out in free time on a personal initiative has to study a microbiome of digestive system of a cat. The research is conducted both on domestic cats, and on the cats living in the wild nature, or in shelters. A microbiome is called the set of bacteria and microorganisms which we carry in the bodies.
""As well as we, animals are in an environment of microbes, - Holly Ganz, the researcher from the University of California in Davis who is studying a microbiome of cats, and took part in this project financed through Kickstarter says. - They really interest us because of the influence on health and behavior"". Is known of the beings living in our cat's partners a little. Nevertheless, as well as at people, microbes in cats play an important role in their health, promoting digestion, influencing the immune system, and, perhaps, controlling development of obesity, diabet, and irritation of a colon. Ganz says: ""Mikrobiom of digestive system is really important, and he is very difficult and various"".
One of several researches of a microbiome of cats conducted earlier found various bacteria in a digestive tract of the kittens who are on a diet with the high content of protein, with its average content, and with the average content of carbohydrates. Cats treat true predators for which the most useful is the diet with a large amount of proteins, but commercial producers of food for cats incline high saturation carbohydrates more and more aside. This research was published on the Internet on August 31, 2012, in the British Journal of Nutrition edition.
However as it is the first project investigating a microbiome cat's with such detail, Gants and her colleagues loving cats scientists just planned to report about what they will find in the cats. Despite simplicity of the purpose, these observations can have practical applications among owners of cats as the group intends to compare wild, house and living in shelters, cats. In case of people, similar researches revealed various communities of bacteria living in various groups of the European population. In the future, Gants, in process of detection bigger says quantity of microorganisms in cats, the group will be able to begin to analyze as the microbiome of cats is influenced by various diets and the environment and whether the microbiome of a cat changes with age. Each individual cat has own unique microbiome.
The idea about financing of the project of studying cats through Kickstarter was stated in the form of a joke in the beginning, but it gained development because looks, as the fine project for realization in free time, Jonathan Eisen entering into group professor of the University of California says. Use of crowd funding solves a financing problem as still it was not succeeded to receive a grant on carrying out such research, Gants says. ""Money for a research of pets is absorbed by more pressing problems, such as fight against cancer"", - she says.
The project of ""a cat's microbiome"" on Kickstarter already collected minimum necessary financing, but fund raising is still open, and you can render assistance if you are interested in what lives in your cat.
That the cat participated in a research, its curious owner has to collect a small, but fresh sample a calla of the cat and send it to scientists for the analysis. (Owners of cats often deal with excrements of the pets.) In exchange, they will obtain information on different types microorganisms in Calais of a cat and also the management for the person without vocational training which describes in a simple language that all this means. ""We want it to be interesting to people"", - Gants says.
For fastidious people, or that who have no cats there is a chance to become the sponsor for a research of wild cats, or cats from a shelter of Association of Rescue of Cats of Vancouver. Gants the calla of 150 wild cats (lions and cheetahs) from Africa already received samples, conducting researches there. Scientists intend to give the chance to sponsors in Kickstarter to compare results from various places. In other words, the owner of a cat from California can see the results received from Canada and South Africa. ""We intend to investigate a microbiome of cats within ten years, - Gants says. - And all of us can derive from it small pleasure"".