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It also prevents pyometra and reduces the risk of mammary tumour development. However, this procedure also has negative effects, such as urinary incontinence. Steroid hormone deprivation following gonadectomy could also affect canine vaginal mucosa conditions and the microbial community colonizing the vaginal tract. This hypothesis was tested by comparing the vaginal cytology and microbial community of two groups of bitches, including 11 in anoestrus and 10 sterilized bitches (post-pubertal sterilization in the last 4 years). Bacteria were identified through metataxonomic analysis, amplifying the V3-V4 regions of<jats:italic>16S rRNA<\/jats:italic>gene, and culturing methods.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Vaginal mucosa cytology was suggestive of dystrophic conditions in sterilized bitches, whereas a typical anoestrus pattern with parabasal and intermediate cells was appreciable in anoestrous animals. Metataxonomic analysis revealed large inter-individual variability.<jats:italic>Salmonella<\/jats:italic>,<jats:italic>Mycoplasma<\/jats:italic>and<jats:italic>Staphylococcus<\/jats:italic>were present in moderate quantities in almost all the samples in both groups. Mollicutes (class level) and Tenericutes (phylum level) were commonly present in moderate quantities in anoestrus samples, whereas these microbes were present at high levels in a single sample from the sterilized group.<\/jats:p><jats:p>Based on culturing, a higher number of different species were isolated from the anoestrous bitches, and<jats:italic>Mycoplasma canis<\/jats:italic>was exclusively identified in an anoestrous bitch.<jats:italic>Staphylococcus<\/jats:italic>spp<jats:italic>.<\/jats:italic>was the most frequently isolated genus in both groups, followed by<jats:italic>Streptococcus<\/jats:italic>spp., and, among gram-negative bacteria,<jats:italic>Escherichia<\/jats:italic>spp<jats:italic>.<\/jats:italic>and<jats:italic>Haemophilus<\/jats:italic>spp<jats:italic>.<\/jats:italic>A comparison of the numbers of the most frequently isolated genera of bacteria from vaginal cultures of bitches revealed that<jats:italic>Pasteurella<\/jats:italic>and<jats:italic>Proteus<\/jats:italic>were the most frequently identified in sterilized animals based on metataxonomic analysis (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>-value\u2009=\u20090.0497 and 0.0382, respectively), whereas<jats:italic>Streptococcus<\/jats:italic>was significantly and most frequently isolated from anoestrous bitches using culture methods (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>value\u2009=\u20090.0436).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title><jats:p>In this preliminary investigation, no global patterns of the vaginal bacteria community were noted that characterized the condition of the bitches; however, cytology suggested local modifications. Sterilization after puberty caused minimal alterations in the vaginal microbial community of bitches within 4 years after surgery.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12917-020-02670-3","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,23]],"date-time":"2020-11-23T15:10:21Z","timestamp":1606144221000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Effect of sterilization on the canine vaginal microbiota: a pilot study"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4765-9764","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ada","family":"Rota","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michela","family":"Corr\u00f2","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ilaria","family":"Patuzzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chiara","family":"Milani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stefania","family":"Masia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eleonora","family":"Mastrorilli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sara","family":"Petrin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alessandra","family":"Longo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Angela","family":"Del Carro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carmen","family":"Losasso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,23]]},"reference":[{"issue":"Suppl. 2","key":"2670_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1439-0531.2009.01437.x","volume":"44","author":"IM Reichler","year":"2009","unstructured":"Reichler IM. 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The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Department of Veterinary Sciences of the University of Turin (Italy) (1059\/27\/05\/2020). Written informed consent of the dog owners was obtained.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"The authors declare that they have no competing interests.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"455"}}