817 - Exploring Microbial Community Alterations during Hospital Animal-Assisted Intervention Programs

Background: Animal-assisted interventions, or pet therapy, is increasingly used by healthcare facilities given the numerous benefits in various settings. However, therapy animals may serve as vectors of hospital-associated pathogens. Yet, both pathogenic and protective commensal microbes could be transferred between patients and therapy animals. This pilot study aims to quantify the microbial sharing between patients and therapy dogs, and determine if contact level and a decolonization intervention modifies this sharing.Figure 1. Microbial Pathways during Animal-Assisted Intervention Programs


Methods: We collected pediatric patient and therapy dog nasal samples before and after each group therapy visit. Contact level was based on interaction time and key behaviors. Therapy dog handlers performed normal practices for two control visits, then switched to a decolonization protocol (chlorhexidine shampoo prior to the visit, and chlorhexidine wipes during the visit) for two intervention visits. Sample DNA was sequenced for the 16S rRNA gene V1-3 region to assess microbiota composition and diversity.

Results: We collected 105 samples (79 from patients and 26 from dogs) over 13 study visits. There was an increase in within-sample (alpha) diversity levels after the visits in patients and dogs in control visits, and an overall decrease in intervention visits. Patients were more similar in their microbial composition (beta diversity) to other patients and to dogs after visits. Patients with higher dog contact were more similar to other patients in control and intervention visits using the unweighted metric, but only in control visits for the weighted metric.Figure 2. Difference in Beta Diversity Post-Pre Visit, by Contact Level and Visit Type


Conclusion: These findings indicate that microbes are shared between patients and therapy dogs during animal-assisted interventions, shown by the increase in alpha diversity levels and microbial community shifts. High contact increased interactions in all pathways, resulting in greater microbial sharing. With the dog pathway blocked, the intervention reduced spread of unique dog taxa, but sharing still occurred in high contact patients.
This shows that, while there is potential for the dog to be a vector, other potential pathways are important for microbial sharing during group therapy visits. Infection control efforts should reflect all possible pathways of microbial transmission.