The microbiome of dogs and cats -Â what do we know in 2017?

The microbiome is the defined as the microbial communities of bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi, protists and arthropods that live in and on our body. New methods, called next-generation sequencing technologies, have allowed the identification of thousands of microbial species, the majority of which it is impossible to culture with traditional methods. Sophisticated bioinformatic tools are used for basic sequence processing, taxonomic assignment, diversity analyses and community comparisons. The first studies on cutaneous microbiome in veterinary medicine have been published and dysbiosis has been recognized in association with canine atopic dermatitis. This review summarizes the main findings on human and veterinary cutaneous microbiome.