Effects of the Protein Concentration and Quality in a Canned Diet on the Fecal Microbiota of Healthy Adult Cats

Feline diets can markedly differ in their protein concentration and quality, which might also affect the intestinal microbiota of cats. In the present study, 6 canned diets, differing in their protein quality (high/low, achieved by varying amounts of meat and collagen-rich ingredients) and concentration (high quality/low quality: 36.2/36.7% in dry matter (DM), 43.3/45.0% in DM and 54.9/56.1% in DM), were fed to 10 healthy adult cats for 6 weeks each. At the end of the feeding periods, fecal samples were collected to analyze the microbiota (16S rDNA sequencing) and bacterial metabolites. Increasing dietary protein concentrations increased the relative abundance of Fusobacterium and Bacteroides as well as the concentrations of ammonium and n-valerate in the feces of the cats, independently of the dietary protein quality. A lower dietary protein quality was accompanied by a higher evenness index and a higher relative abundance of Fusobacteria and Bacteroidetes in the feces when compared to the feeding of the high protein quality diets. A promotion of bacterial proteolytic activity and, in particular, increased intestinal ammonium concentrations might be undesired effects of high protein intakes in cats. Whether the long-term feeding of those diets could be critical for feline health requires further investigation.