Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. My name is Charlotte and I have the pleasure of presenting today's webinar, the Skin Microbiome.
I'd like to firstly say a big thank you to Animal Care UK for sponsoring today's session and for making this webinar possible. We also have the pleasure of Paul joining us from Animal Care and I look forward to hearing a bit about animal care later on in the webinar. So, a bit about our speakers today.
Shay Beasley is a microbiologist with a PhD in the health effects of species-specific lactic acid bacteria in animals and humans. Her particular interest is in restoring host microbiome by dietary choices and selecting probiotic strains in, The right metaphor of from each indication. She's also academically active and finds publishing a good way to make a difference.
In my class has studied bioscience, engineering and then he obtained a PhD in cell and technology in 2011. Based on his expertise in the field of probiotics and its molecular mechanisms, he co-founded Young Pro Biotherapy in 2016. As chief scientific officer, he focuses on the research and development of topical applications with live beneficial bacteria to restore the skin microbiome.
So these guys are the perfect candidates to be speaking about the subject today. I wish to let you all know that today's session will be recorded and available on playback, and you will all receive a certificate for today's attendance also for your CPD. Please use the Q&A box for any questions you may have for us because throughout the presentation and at the end of the session, we will see if we can answer any of the questions you may have.
If we run out of time with the questions submitted, we will email out any responses to you in the next few days. So with no further ado, I'd now like to hand over to Shay to start today's session. Thank you.
Thank you, Charlotte. Welcome to this webinar on skin microbiome. Today we'll talk about how bacteria influence skin health, what happens on microbiome level when things go wrong, and how to rebalance skin dysbiosis.
Bacteria were the first living organisms on planet Earth. During mammal evolution, bacteria developed within the host animal, becoming a part of the host. In dogs, this symbiotic relationship has evolved for over 15,000 years.
This gives an understanding how tight the relationship between host and microbes are. It is estimated That an individual carries 10 times more bacterial cells than host cells. The microbiome consists of mainly bacteria, fungi, and viruses.
And when in healthy balance, this diverse microbiome is designed to support the host health. Through their coexistence, the microbiome and the host have created a bidirectional signalling on mucosal and skin surfaces. The microbiome is affected by several factors such as age, lifestyle, diet, and cohabitants.
We literally share one health with our pets. Studies show that adult pet owners receive a majority of new microbis from pets, especially skin microbes that are shared. In microbiome builds up through time frames.
A stable keystone microbiome develops early in life. The early life microbial transfer from mum is the base of a lifelong microbiota. During weaning, also extrinsic factors start shaping the keystone microbiome.
Which then stabilises in dogs at the age of one year. At this time, the bacterial diversity has developed to its peak. During adulthood, only a small part of the microbiome is altered, if not disturbed by lifestyle choices, medication, and antiseptics.
In ageing pets, the microbiome naturally reduces and therefore senior. If it from regular probiotic support. A dense fur covers dog skin, creating a perfect environment for microbes.
The herd skin regions contain higher bacterial diversity compared to mucosal areas. In the less diverse skin areas, the microbial defence may be reduced, allowing foreign microbes to adhere. Today, urbanisation is a challenge to the microbiome.
Human lifestyle choices affect pets as well, having an impact on their immune system. Reduction, sorry, reduced microbiome can lead to this biosis further on, to immune, this regulation and compromised skin health. Microbial educates the immune system.
Diversity in skin bacteria are essential for local immune development. Reduction in beneficial skin microbes exposed to harmful microbes and possibly to microbial overgrowth leading to skin diseases. This biosis is an imbalance of microbial species.
An imbalance duplicate builds up gradually and clinical signs become visible later in time. To understand this biosis, it is important to identify harmful microbes such as Staphylococci, Pseudomonas, and malastasia contributing to this biosis. As well as recognising beneficial microbes that support skin health.
This biotic skin shows a reduction in bacterial and fungal species, as we can see here when comparing healthy dog microbiota to clinically affected dogs. The loss of diversity may lead to microbial overgrowth which exposes the dog to skin disease. This biotic skin microbiome also contains less microbes in total, having an impact on the immunity.
Skin microbial dysbiosis plays a key role in the development and or worsening of microbiome related skin diseases. So, what can we do about it? With this, I'll hand over to Ingmar, who will have an answer to this question.
Thank you very much for the introduction on the microbiome, and I think it's quite clear now that the microbiome, the skin microbiome has that direct interaction with the immune system and our body also has an impact on the skin of dogs. So what can we do about it, and I think that's immediately important then to see in veterinary medicine how important is the use of antibiotics, antimycotics, and antiseptics. And actually knowing that these molecules, antibacterial molecules, antimicrobial molecules have an effect on skin of the skin of dogs, but also on the outer ear channel, it's quite clear that the microbiome plays a role.
But what are options then in another way to tackle the microbiome and the microbial dysbiosis? So you have probably heard about probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics, and lysates. But what are they exactly and what are the differences between the life probiotics and for example the prebiotics?
So prebiotics are actually the nutrients specifically for beneficial bacteria. And they boost the, the, the beneficial bacteria and thereby have an impact on the microbiome. What is essential for prebiotics is that the beneficial bacteria should already be present on the dark skin.
So that's a limitation in a certain way if there is a really strong dysbiosis by overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria. You also have ah the term postbiotics, and postbiotics is a term that's actually talking about the byproducts or the molecules of the probiotic bacteria. So it might be that these microorganisms have molecules that have an impact on the immune system and thereby have beneficial effects.
So that's the postbiotics. On the other hand, you have also deactivated probiotics that some people are talking about, and that's actually killing the bacteria. It might be by heat treatment or by a pressure, high pressure that they're not alive anymore but still have still these molecules on the surface and thereby have an impact also on the skin immune cells.
And then lysates are specifically a preparation containing the products of the cells, but with with where the membrane of the bacteria of the microorgans are broken. So it's our only parts of the cellular structures that are administered. All of these .
Terms have potential. However, we See most of the value in life probiotics for having an impact on the microbiome, and I will tell you more about why. So probiotics are the life microorganisms, and we prefer the lacobacilli because of their safety profile, which when administered in adequate amounts, can confer a health benefit.
I emphasise the term life, adequate amounts and health benefits. Why? Because it's like with small molecules, the dosage that's important, the life is important because then you have a multifactorial mode of action of your probiotics and of course you want to have that impact on the microbiome and.
Benefit for the skin. Important is of course the strain selection of the probiotic because you want to have the best benefit risk ratio for specific applications. And in that screening of certain potentially probiotic strains, we look at safety, applicability and functional activity, and that's based on the history of the strains, the background of the genus.
But also looking at the genome level at antibiotic resistant genes, toxicity genes, and so on to make sure that your strain that you're using is really safe. Specifically for the applicability we look of course at at developing a product that's also having these bacteria inside. So it's important that we are able to grow the bacteria to sufficient amounts and that they are safe but also stay alive on the skin at the at the at the site of application.
And the third part is of course looking at how are they functionally active. Do they have an impact on the microbiome? Can they reduce certain pathogenic bacteria, start going in competition with these bacteria and have an effect on the immune system and the epithelial modulation.
So it's all about specific strains just as like in the case of drug molecules. No bacteria are the same. Bacterial strains have their own unique characteristics.
Our strains are patented and ah specifically suited for an application on the skin. Regarding the mode of action, we're looking at a multifactorial mode of action that's really having the, the difference between certain molecules and bacteria. The multifactorial mode of action comes from the fact that probiotics are life microorganisms and have several molecules on the surface that have the impact on, on, on the skin.
And what we often see with skin microbiome is that because of the use of certain antibacterial products, you wipe out very often also the beneficial commensal bacteria of the microbiome. So the skin microbiome is damaged by these antibacterial agents and you often get again in an unbalanced microbiome state, more a vicious circle where you Again have afterwards popping up an overgrowth of the pathogenic bacteria that were present in higher amounts at the start. So by using the probiotics we can inhibit pathogens specifically and restore a more healthy microbiome.
We can select the probiotic strains to have also an improvement on barrier function, improving the dijunction proteins, for example, and have also anti-inflammatory effects on the cells. And in this way you go to a more healthy state and less chance of relapse or problems of reoccurrence in the in the biotic state. So topical probiotherapy, we're looking at strain specific specificity like I said, and we have a rhamnosis strain UNS 1.0, but also a plantarum vito.0 that have really distinct probiotic properties and suited for application on the skin.
And it's all about the similarity with hormones. For example, if you're looking at bacteria, it is the strain specificity. If you're looking at drug molecules or for example the hormones testosterone, progesterone, oestrogen, they all look quite similar on the chemical level.
But these small differences on the chemical level, small changes in the molecules have huge impacts on on clinically wise. So that's the same with probiotic bacteria and probiotic strains, knowing that there are hundreds and thousands of genes that are important for the probiotics, then you know that all these produce molecules and all these different types of molecules can have an impact on the efficacy of your specific strain. So specific strains can modulate the bacterial population to bacteriocins, for example.
They are producing antimicrobial peptides, but they're also producing lactic acid. They have also has an impact on the barrier function, specifically by regulating dijunction proteins and also impact the immune system, because we know that certain molecules on the surface of our lactobacilli work to to like receptors and thereby activate immune pathways. So probiotherapy can be used also to target this biosis, and the benefit is mostly that we don't have that collateral damage.
Our probiotic bacteria, when carefully selected, can compete and reduce overgrowth of certain pathogenic bacteria. So that's really A, a benefit for the dog's skin, for the dog's microbiome, you're not completely wiping out the the beneficial and commensal bacteria present on, on, on the dog's skin. Why we use lactobacilli.
So there are multiple reasons why we use lactobacilli, and one of the first ones is because of the safety profile. The safety profile and the fact that they are naturally also present on the dog's skin, in the dog's gut, we can find lacobacilli and even in the dog's ear. Maybe it's not always the most dominant bacteria, but it's definitely one of the keystone bacteria.
And here on on the the figures you can see on the the yellow colours on the bottom always of the of the the charts of the graphs. You can always see this lactobasyli being present and here is an example in the ear channel and it's really having a keystone function, meaning. These lactobacilli keep the population, the commensal bacteria in place.
They make sure that pathogenic bacteria that are always present in small amounts don't have the chance to overgrow and cause some these biosis. So they're blacktopus are also listed as qualified presumption of safety, so they have a QPS status in the EU. It's already an indication how safe they are.
They're used for human use. They're for animal use in oral use, and so they've been really proven safe for animals, owners and the environment. Important in the strain selection is that you look at making sure that there's no antibiotic resistance that can be transferred to other bacteria, of course.
And then lastly, they have a very low potential allergenicity based on, on, on, on their characteristics. So benefits for probiotics versus antimicrobials, I'm, it's quite clear that antimicrobials have their place. I'm not saying that antibiotics should not be used anymore.
Antibiotics have clearly the benefits. Why? Because the pathogenic bacteria sometimes really overgrow, and the best way is to have them using the antibiotics to to to to lower the pathogens, but the problem is they're not solved.
You have always that collateral damage with the antibiotic and antimycotics and therefore you need the restoration of your microbiome in general. And so lactobacilli can really have that support for long term microbiome balance by out competing the pathogens but without having the collateral damage on the commensal beneficial bacteria. So some, some listing up some, some benefits for veterinary microbiology and the use of lactobacilli.
So this life lactobacili compete with harmful micro regulate the immune system and maintain an optimal skin environment. And so that's without harming the beneficial bacteria. The potential of this new strain is all about strain specificity.
No strain is the same. All strains have their specific characteristics. The safety profile is of course essential.
We don't want to induce any antibiotic resistance, and of course it should be a more long term sustainable way of out competing the pathogenic bacteria. And bacteria will always be there, so we need to find that balance and not and not go into this biotic state. So antimicrobials, broad spectrum, collateral damage to the beneficial bacteria and probiotic that's more targeted approach and preserving also the beneficial bacteria.
So in summary of of this this talk and this webinar, we've seen that the skin microbiome consists of a diverse quantity of microorganisms adhering on the skin surface and are really protecting the hosts. They're continuously interacting also with the immune system and keeping the dogs skin actually in a healthy state. The microbiome already develops in early life and is impacted by the environment, by age, by sex, by breed, by lifestyle, and of course medication, urbanisation, and hygiene, exposure of certain chemicals can have an impact on this, this microbial balance.
It's also clearly known that certain genera are more linked to this biotic state, like for example, Staphylococi, pseudomonas, or malacasia, and that the live bacteria are present on the healthy skin and can also, if selected carefully, can reduce the overgrowth of certain pathogens. So the selected live bacteria life lactobacilli have that impact on, on the pathogenic bacteria on the immune system and creating the the environment, the skin environment. So common skin pathogens can be detected and differentiated from lactobacilli by staining and microscopy, and this is also very essential, of course, in practise.
We know that it's not always easy to see that dysbiotic state, to know which pathogenic bacteria are really present. And of course cytology here and microscope work is essential, and I really believe that it needs to be. In certain cases being worked out, being looked at cytology, looking to make sure that it's really malacasia being the fungal overgrowths and that you may need more the antimycotics or whether or not it's the the Staphylococci that are overgrowing, for example, Staphylococcus pseudointermedius and that you then really use more the targeted approach with the antibiotics.
And then in combination or afterwards, the lactobacilli have real, the, the real potential of restoring this biosis. And by that, I want to thank you all for, for listening to our webinar and of course, we're happy to answer questions and I now give first words to ah to Paul. Hi there.
Thank you very much for the introduction at the, at the start there, Charlotte, and, thank you as well to Ingmar and Shay, for that really insightful, and informative, foundational introduction to, the skin microbiome. My name's Paul Carth. I'm one of the vets here at Animal Care UK, and this is just going to be a really brief introduction, to some of the products, that we have coming, to the UK market, this month.
And we're just going to really briefly discuss, the, the products, and, and, and very, short detail, as, an intro. So as you can see, we have two products, on the screen, one named ProAop, and the other named Pro Orris. And we'll cover these off, in separate slides, .
So if we start with Pro AO, so as you can see from the image, it's a small canister product with a spray, and this product is designed as a topical skin spray for dogs, as you can see. The product itself, is a 50 mL pump spray, and as you heard from the presentation there, it contains two strains, of live lactobacili, so Lactocabacillus rhamnosis, and lactolantobacillus planar. And these bacteria, are the, or, or, or form the main mode of action, of the product, and are there, to enhance, the skin barrier, and support the skin health, in dogs.
So, the target population, as I said, is dogs, and really it's those dogs that are prone to, sensitive skin, and the product is used, will be used to help support a healthy skin microbiome or to help to restore, and maintain a healthy, diverse, skin microbiome. This product's a 50 mil pump spray, so there is a pump action to it. And it's designed to be applied once daily to any area of affected or sensitive skin, for 4 weeks.
One spray will cover around about 10 cm by 10 centimetre area. So it depends in terms of length of use, for the end user, the, the pet owner, depends on the area of skin, being used on, or the area of sensitive skin, being targeted with the, with the product or the amount of product being administered. In terms of uses of the product, there's, there's, there's, there's really no, contraindications other than if you're using a, perhaps an antibacterial wash, you wouldn't want to use that at the same time.
But potentially, as I say, following. Any, anti microbial treatment or anti, antibiotic treatment, to help to rediversify, that, microbiome, for either short term or long term. So it's really at clinicians' discretion how the product is administered.
So that's very top line on the Pro Aop product, and then we have moving on to the Pro Auris, which, er, is an eardrop again designed for dogs, and as you can see from the packaging comes in a very small 20 mL, bottle. So again, very similar, indication for use, containing the same two live lactobacili, in the product. So very similar to Proateop in that it's there to help support, and, recovery of a healthy auttic microbiome.
For dogs with sensitive ears, and also to help support, rebalance, following antimicrobial treatment. So, again, this could be used, short term and, sensitive ears, or again, to rediversify following, antimicrobial treatment. Again, 20 mL bottle with a, a small hard nozzle, so used in a very similar way to many of the products, for, for years on the market, currently.
Both products have around 2029 months shelf life, and a current 4 month open shelf life stability, . So again, very similar products, slightly different uses containing the same live bacteria, and the live bacteria, as you saw in the presentation, have those, modes of action, that can help to maintain, the health of the, the skin barrier, and rediversify the microbiome and enhance the skin barrier following any disease treatments. So that's it from me.
Please, if you do have any questions, you can gain further information from either your territory sales manager, or info at animalcare.co.uk, and one of the team at Animal Care will get back to you.
Thank you very much. So, thank you to Ima and Shay, for presenting today's webinar, and what a great informative session. And, also thank you to Paul and, and also Animal Care and Kate.
And, we have got, a few questions, so we'll see what we can get through. So, let's have a look at what we've got first. First one I've got is the current use of disinfectants and antiseptics in the home environment, a cause of this biosis of bacteria on the skin and increasing allergic skin disease.
Anyone able to answer that one? So I can think I can start. Maybe she can also help in if if she has the specifics, but generally indeed it's the current use of disinfected and antiseptics is believed to have that impact on on this biosis of bacteria on the skin of dogs.
Of course it's, it's hard to demonstrate exactly there's not too much data on next with next generation sequencing data from from dogs. However, it Quite clear from the data scientific data that between healthy dogs and dogs with more this biotic state with more problems of symptoms of atopic dermatitis, that there is a difference and it's probably due to that, antiseptics that are overused and the hygiene methods because we do know. From, from, from many cases that we see in the labs and in vitro work and also from, from, from partially in vivo work that after long term use of these antiseptics and these chemicals, these chemicals can be found on the skin and have an impact on the microbalm, and many of these antibacterial molecules, if they are long term on the skin of the dogs, they will have an impact on the microbal.
Yeah. OK, thank you for that one. The next 1 May I add a bit on the antimicrobials?
It is in dogs studies, gut studies, it has been noted that, some antimicrobials can change the gut microbiome for over 3 years. So this is Well, there are not that many skin studies yet, but it's most likely the same situation as there are the same antimicrobials and the same, more or less the same type of bacterial species on the skin as in as in this in the gut as well. So that's something to think of.
That's really interesting, yeah. The next one we've got is can you specify which antibiotic will destroy the microbiome on the skin directly and what to use and what not to. Thank you.
Well, here we definitely know that antibiotics have an impact on the microbialm, that certain antibiotics that are used, for example, fluorenicol, has an impact on, for example, staphylococci, so can reduce the pathogens if that pathogen is really present. However, in certain cases, for example, for florenicol, we know that pseudomonas is then in general most of the strains are resistant to this. So even if you have a dysbiotic state with, for example, a pseudomonas, then it's important again to choose the right antibiotic for the right application.
So again here it's, it's always referring to it would be very useful to have the perfect diagnostics based on cytology combined with next generation sequencing, knowing what is this biotic state, which is the pathogen, and then you have first you want to then prefer to have the treatment and have the the clear benefits for the dog that the symptoms are reduced by using the antimycotic or the antimycotic if it's for example, malacasia. And afterwards or in the meantime you start up with the probiotics to really make sure that you have that long term effect because if you would only use that antibiotic and you're able to reduce the pathogen, you never will 100% kill your pathogenic bacteria and the chance of relapse is really high. Yeah, I completely understand that.
Next one that we have is, is there any specific time to use lacto Baxilus on skin infection? So the timing of the Lactobacillus is always a tricky one, but in, in the, the, the, the main messages because of the safety you can always use the lactobacilli. So there can always be used.
But of course in more severe cases in severe dysbiotic states, it's logical to still use the antibiotics and the antimycotics and then afterwards or in the meantime you can already start to put a lactobacili even starting up. When you're already using the antimicrobial, maybe sounds counterintuitive intuitive in the sense that you then also kill your probiotics, but it's important to start soon enough because after the use of an antibiotic or an antimycotic, there is that window of opportunity that and the big chance that your pathogenic bacteria that is not completely killed starts kicking in again and because of the safety it's then therefore already good to start up with the probiotics. So I would say immediately after the infection, the real infections are already cured, you have that opportunity, that window that's important for the lacopacilli to be applied.
OK. Lovely. Thank you.
Next one we've got is a reintroduction. Have the, hairless, dry skin areas, microbiomes being compared with hairy and mucosal like so many problem areas, like, for example, external ear, ventral tail, thigh skin folds. We are running several studies at the moment, a clinical study with an open labels clinical study that will be published later on this year and a field study in several countries in Europe.
And the products have been tested on on real patients, so patients with OA or, or, canine dysbiosis. So, we're looking into those results at the moment and looking into publishing them as soon as possible. So yes, we do have, we do have results, but I can't go the specifics at the moment without having, having the full data in front of me.
But we'll, we'll have them as soon as possible. Thank you. Do the probiotics have any control against malathhesia?
Yes, definitely. That's, . Actually was essential in the screening and the selection.
We knew that malacisia pachydermatis is involved in certain cases of this biosis, and so the strains that we selected have also activity against this malacasia. OK. Mhm.
Next one, will the products, that we discussed from Animal Care, will they be available in the US? So really at the moment that the products are launching, in Europe, so animal care are leading the launch of these products, so I, the UK, and several of the, the countries from animal care, but, as far as I'm aware, currently, there's no plans, for the US, but. At the moment that's we're launching in Europe.
Yes, yeah, see how you go. And also, can the products, be used in cats? Yes, so we've got no data in cats at the moment, but as I say, that the products can be used in cats, again at the question's discretion.
Yeah, yeah, OK. Next one we've got is after applying a long acting ear preparation such as nectar, what regime of Prois would you use? Nectar, I'm not sure what that is.
But if you're, if you're using, so again, the, the pros is, is indicated really for supporting the, the health of the microbiome and the diversity or in that instance, post antimicrobial or, or post, treatment, product, then you can, and put the product, again, as I say, post, post-treatment to, to rebalance that microbiome. The product is indicated for application every 2 days. So really there, you know, there's, there's, there's no, again, there's no contraindications as to, you know, how often, you apply the product.
I would still stick to that every 2 days, and that's based on an engraftment study that we performed, with the, with the product to, to, to confirm that that every 48 hours is sufficient, to maintain that bacterial level, in the ear canal. So really it's, it depends on the product being used, but yes, I would stick with it every 2 days. Again, that could be short term, long term, it's, it's up, it's really up to the clinician.
Yeah. Thank you. Another one in regards to product, can proatop be used together with other, AP medications such as cytokoin, Jack andtipiter, cyclosporin, a steroid, for example?
So yeah, I mean, again, Proop again, like Pros, there's, there's no real contraindications for the, for the, the ProAop other than perhaps if you're using an antimicrobial wash or a shampoo again, as as Ingmar mentioned, you could kill the bacteria. But again, if you're using the product, The products are over the counter, products. So really, if you're using a, a treatment like a, you know, POM V, whether it's a, a glucocorticoid or, or one of the products mentioned there, that's bringing in the, the microbiome, lactobacili, to rediversify.
That's again, it's at the clinician's discretion really, as to how they implement that product, and if it's appropriate, etc. And in regards to, I guess, compliance and things like that, how would you recommend stopping the dog licking it off or prevention, and obviously, you know, what would happen if the dog was to lick it and things like that? So yeah, I know it's, it's a great question, and, and something we have thought of.
So the products are, are, they are lick safe, and there's no issue with, oral ingestion of, of the, the products, . So really, it's a case of, it depends on the area involved, it depends on the specific dog. But really, there, there's no safety issue as such with, with licking the product.
You may get a reduction in the, the bacterial load on, on the skin through licking, natural licking off. But the product is designed, for daily administration with Proop, and the bacteria. Sufficient numbers to, to really engraft and compete with the bacteria there, even with a, a dog that's, that's licking.
So I think it's, it's, there's a bit of logic comes in there, you know, if the dog is incessantly licking the area again, under, under clinician discretion, it may be, prudent to use some, some, some form of restraint, bus collar, etc. Again, it really depends on the dog, but as I say, there's not a There's not a defined protocol if the dog's licking it is just keeping as, as you would try and keep the dog away from the area. Yeah, thank you.
Have you got any evidence to show, or any trials to show that, products speed up recovery, so for example, like probiotics have been shown to, do with like acute diarrhoea cases, for example? Yes, of the open level clinical study, we have some nice results coming up there. And for the field study, we, we need to, you know, it looks good as well, but we need to access those, those results first.
Thank you. Is the strain of lactobaxilus temperature sensitive? So, specifically we looked at this, ah, on stability and viability and so for all bacteria, you have that applicability that is important, so can they stay alive and are they robust enough to be in the product and in the shelf life?
And we've seen that of course we all bacteria, temperature sensitivity is there, but our product is stable at room temperature for the duration of the shelf life, keeping the bacteria really viable. It all comes down to the full formulation, the ingredient selection, the bacterial strain, how it is fermented, how it is freeze right, and we've we've seen in the past that they are all again the strain specificity also pops in. Some strains are more sensitive, or more sensitive to temperatures and stability, but these are bacteria, if properly stored, and that's being between 15 and 25 degrees, you will have the shelf life.
Of course, never good to store a probiotic product in high, high temperatures. If it's stored for short term, above higher above room temperature, that's not an issue, but long term storage does, does have a significant impact on the viability of the probiotics. OK.
Got, if you don't have bacteria in cytology, but you have, malashesia and the ear is quite inflamed, would you use, malacetic as I have inflammation that may irritate or increase the inflammation. I'm not completely sure if malacetic is, is that the product with acetic acids. But I'm not completely sure, but in general, again, here, if, if it's malacasia, you want to indeed to reduce the malacisia, a product that reduces malacisia, and if it's based on, for example, organic acids, of course it could have also the, the antibacterial effect but also cause collateral damage and depending on what type of active disease in the product.
Can also have of course a little bit of an irritation. So that's again, yeah, why we see the, the, the, the lots of potential of using the lacto basilli because they have such a such a high safety level. But yeah, I don't know exactly the malacetic product.
Thank you. If you've got a, patient that's got like, for example, like really very thick, long hair, do we, does it require extra dosaging or anything like that in comparison to. You know, a really thin hair, for example.
So it's, it's something that we, we have also debated, this question, you know, is that the areas of skin that are full of hair. I think it depends on the dog, it depends on the area that you're using the product on. So ultimately, the product is an oil base.
So, really, if, if there's an affected area, then you would imagine in some cases that the hair would become sparse, . That there is an issue, I suppose, again, this comes down to clinician discretion, you know, as, as the product indicated or as treatment indicated, for that patient to then follow on with, you know, lactobacili, proop. So really, I would say again, it's, it's patient specific, the hair could be an issue, but, many cases of and skin irritation, the dog may be itchy.
There may be hair loss already, so I think it depends really on the, on the case that you're looking at. Yep, thank you. In regards to the products as well, .
Will the, I guess the effectiveness be affected by swimming or like water, and things like that? Yeah, so, ultimately, if, if you've got the product going on, ideally, you, you would want to prevent any, swimming or, again, licking that we mentioned earlier on, you try and prevent that as much as you can. Again, if it's a dog that is, is, loves swimming, but there's an area that the, you know, the clinician has.
You know, indicated this product for, then ideally you, you, you wouldn't go swimming and it's oil-based, and you will, again, because it's a daily administration with, the Proweop or, or every two days with Prooris, then there will be engraftment of those bacteria within that 24 hours, you know, so yes, there may be a swimming incident, ideally not. Again, there's a, there's a, there's a logic argument to, to not, allow the dog to swim, but again, if, if the dog happened to swim, you are then re administering the product the next day or two days later. So you will retain some of the bacterial, bacteria on the skin during that event, and then re-administering, the following day, or, or, or 2 days later with the, with the pros.
So, yeah, again, ideally not, but again. Things that things happen in dogs are dogs, but yes, if you're administering a product, ideally not swing. Yeah, no, fair enough.
Is there, have you done any case reports of ATP patients, which should be maintained only with, Pro Aop without any medication. We have the clinical study is with dogs that only receive proatop. So yes, we will have results on that as well.
OK. Another one is, is a prebiotic effective in atopic dermatitis? Well, there you have the, the, the, the part that's in atopic dermatitis.
What's often seen is that it's overgrown by Staphylococci on the lesional areas. So there is indeed this biotic state on the lesional areas. And if you would then think about using a prebiotic, then you would need to give nurture specifically not for that pathogenic bacteria that's really overpopulating, but for that minimal level of beneficial bacteria that are somewhere on the skin.
So that's really tricky then to have a prebiotic that's perfect nutrition for only the beneficial bacteria that is there in low amounts, so. And would it be possible? In theory it seems possible.
However, it's going to be very tricky to have the real efficacy and have the, the, the, the same effect as with the life beneficial probiotics in my opinion, where you have a very high dosage of life lactobacili that can immediately start competing with the pathogenic bacteria. Thank you. And we're down to our last question for today.
Interesting about the idea that the, lacobactyli support the rest of the the biome, but is there any direct evidence that using these, bacto Lacobactyli in unhealthy or antibacterial treated skin or ears will restore the diversity seen in healthy, ears or unhealthy skin? Shall I take that? .
There is evidence, there's tonnes of evidence in the in the gut and and also some on the skin. If you, if you, what Ima said that the lactobacyi don't kill everything off. So what they do is they are sort of, well, we, we look at them as like team players of the skin.
And the microbiome, what they do is they enhance the environment of the skin and the gut so that, it becomes, the microbiome naturally becomes more diverse. Don't know if this makes sense, but if there there are some articles I'm, you know, happy to share we have to share with you if if if you want to want to look into more detail. Perfect.
So that actually brings us, to the end of, today's webinar. So thank you again, Ingma and Shay, and also thank you, Paul, and, Animal Care UK for sponsoring today's webar. We hope you all enjoyed today's webinar and it was lovely to see, lots of questions, being thrown at, everyone.
But thank you, for joining us, everyone, at the webinar there, and we hope to see you all again soon. So thank you for watching and enjoy the rest of your day.
