Dogslife puppy microbiome study (2017-2019)

Al puppies were recruited via Dogslife: a cohort of Kennel Club registered Labrador Retrievers enrolled in an internet-based questionnaire in the UK. Recruitment to Dogslife began in 2010 and continues into 2023. After registration, owners are prompted to complete regular online questionnaires on the Dogslife website about their dog’s morphology, lifestyle and illness incidences. The cohort profile is described elsewhere [1]. This study was approved by the University of Edinburgh Veterinary Ethical Review Committee (Ref: 7.5.09) and Human Ethical Review Committee (Ref: HERC_161_17). Data for this study were collected from a targeted sub-population of Dogslife puppy owners. Dogslife members that registered between the 1st of October 2017 and the 20th of June 2018 were considered eligible if they had given consent to be contacted and their dogs were younger than 114 days old and were healthy. Owners of eligible puppies were contacted by telephone and/or email and those who agreed to participate were asked to return faecal samples and specialised digestive health questionnaires. Samples were collected from puppies at three to four, seven and 12 months of age and their data was combined with regular Dogslife questionnaires. 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing data was produced from dogs’ faecal samples. Sequencing data were also produced from negative controls included throughout laboratory processes and from mock community samples included as PCR amplification. Certain canine samples were also repeated to assess reproducibility. Therefore, this dataset contains 16S rRNA paired end reads from 242 samples and the metadata for these is provided. Additionally, data on the recruitment and sampling processes of the study are included. The dataset is related to the upcoming publication "A longitudinal microbiome study of Labrador Retriever puppies" b y Charlotte S C Woolley, Adrian Muwonge, B Mark Bronsvoort, Jeffrey J Schoenebeck, Ian G Handel, Katie Chamberlain, Erica Rose, Dylan N Clements. Submitted to Animal Microbiome.