MétaCan
Menu
← Back to cohort
Record W4412076112 · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-06178-4

Gut microbiota composition is related to anxiety and aggression scores in companion dogs

2025· article· en· W4412076112 on OpenAlexafffund
Sarita D. Pellowe, Allan Zhang, Dawn R. D. Bignell, Lourdes Peña‐Castillo, Carolyn J. Walsh

Bibliographic record

VenueScientific Reports · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
TopicGut microbiota and health
Canadian institutionsMemorial University of Newfoundland
FundersMitacsDalhousie University
KeywordsAggressionAnxietyGut floraMedicineClinical psychologyPsychologyBiologyPsychiatryImmunology

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

There is mounting evidence for a link between behaviour and the gut microbiome in animal and human health. However, the role of the gut microbiome in the development and severity of behavioural issues in companion dogs is not yet fully understood. Here, we investigated the relationship between gut microbiota composition and aggression or anxiety in pet dogs. Dogs were assigned to higher or lower anxiety and aggression groups based on their owner's responses to the Canine Behavioral Assessment & Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ). Then, the gut microbiota composition of each animal, sequenced from microbial DNA extracted from fecal samples, was assessed for association with the dog's assigned behavioural group using multiple approaches. While minimal differences in relative abundance were seen between behavioural groups, machine-learning and compositional balance models could predict behavioural group based on gut microbiota composition. The genus Blautia was identified consistently across analyses, suggesting a link between this genus and anxiety in pet dogs. This study provides insight into specific bacteria that are linked to increased anxiety and aggression in pet dogs. Further research is required to identify bacteria to the species level, and to better understand the specific role of Blautia in the canine gut-brain axis.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.000
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.001
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Observational · Consensus signal: Observational
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.002
Threshold uncertainty score0.004

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0000.001
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.000
Bibliometrics0.0010.000
Science and technology studies0.0000.000
Scholarly communication0.0010.000
Open science0.0000.000
Research integrity0.0000.000
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0010.000

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.005
GPT teacher head0.269
Teacher spread0.264 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designObservational
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations8
Published2025
Admission routes2
Has abstractyes

Explore more

Same venueScientific Reports→Same topicGut microbiota and health→French-language works237,207→