An old dog’s life: 10,000 pooches sought for study on canine aging
SEATTLE — Can old dogs teach us new tricks? Scientists are looking for 10,000 pets for the largest-ever study of aging in canines. They hope to shed light on human longevity, too.
The project will collect a pile of pooch data: vet records, DNA samples, gut microbes and information on food and walks. Five hundred dogs will test a pill that could slow the aging process.
“What we learn will potentially be good for dogs and has great potential to translate to human health,” said project codirector Daniel Promislow of the University of Washington School of Medicine.
If scientists find a genetic marker for a type of cancer in dogs, for instance, that could be explored in humans. For the study, the dogs will live at home and follow their usual routine. All ages and sizes, purebreds and mutts are welcome.
Owners will complete periodic online surveys and take their dogs to the vet once a year, with the possibility of extra visits for certain tests. Their welfare will be monitored by a bioethicist and a panel of animal welfare advisers.
To nominate a pet, owners can visit the Dog Aging Project’s website.
The five-year study was formally launched Thursday at a science meeting in Austin. The National Inment stitute on Aging is paying for the $23 million project because dogs and humans share the same environ
and get the same diseases; also, dogs’ shorter life spans allow quicker research results, deputy director Dr. Marie Bernard said. The data collected will be available to all scientists.
Compared with farm dogs in the past, today’s pampered pups live longer and get more geriatric diseases, said veterinarian Dr. Kate Creevy of Texas A&M University, the project’s chief scientific officer.
Yet no standard measures exist for frailty or prognosis in sick, aged dogs, Creevy said. The project will develop those tools.