Fecal Microbiome Transfer (FMT) Bank
Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a cutting-edge therapy that involves transferring beneficial gut microbes from a healthy donor into the gastrointestinal tract of a patient with disease. The goal is to restore a balanced, diverse gut microbiome, which plays a key role in digestion, immune function, and protection against harmful pathogens. In human medicine, FMT has been highly successful in treating recurrent Clostridioides difficile infections and is being investigated for a range of other conditions linked to gut dysbiosis.
In veterinary medicine, researchers are beginning to explore how FMT could help dogs and cats with chronic gastrointestinal disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease, chronic diarrhea, or after antibiotic treatments that disrupt normal gut flora. By reintroducing a healthy microbial community, FMT may offer a natural and effective way to support gut health, improve clinical outcomes, and reduce reliance on long-term medications. While still an emerging area of study, FMT has the potential to become an important new tool for improving the health and wellbeing of companion animals.
We are establishing a ‘bank’ of fecal material from healthy donors (both dogs and cats), and plan to use this within our MSU hospital as adjunctive therapy in a range of conditions.
How do we screen our donors?
Most of our donors are owned by staff or students here (frequent access). As there is some evidence that metabolic disease, behavioral issues and even obesity can be triggered by an FMT we have stringent criteria for our donors:
- They need to be adults (to have a fully developed microbiome).
- They need to be of breeds that are not predisposed to GI disease.
- They need to be in lean body condition.
- They need to have no history of metabolic or behavioural problems.
- They need to have not received antibiotics or other medications that may impact the microbiome in the past 3 months.
- They need to have firm stools and no evidence of GI disease.
- They need to be free of pathogens and parasites (as well as we can detect).
- They need to have a normal microbiome (as well as we can detect).
Will we allow non-MSU pets to access the bank?
We anticipate being able to provide FMT products to local veterinary clinics to administer to their clients.
How are FMTs administered?
We process and store (for a maximum of 6 months) fresh stool. We then administer this as an enema to recipients. Most dogs do not need to be sedated for this, but occasionally this may be required. Cats will typically need some sedation! Typically, feces from at least two different donors will be administered in one procedure.
We believe that FMT administered in this way is more likely to be effective than oral capsules, but there is still a lot of research required to confirm this.
What are the potential side effects?
There is often mild, self-limiting diarrhea for the first 12-24 hours after administration. There is little risk other than this with the procedure if the donors are well screened for infectious and metabolic disease. Even though there is still a lot we don’t know about the impact of FMT long-term on systemic health, at this stage it is believed to be safe when conducted appropriately.
