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Bacteria: from hound to home!
Genetic variability in dog breeds
Spinal problems in dogs (Part 1)
How tall is your Labrador? The height of our research!
Bacteria: from hound to home!
Finding out more about bacteria and microbial ecosystems is important as it could give us clues as to why people and animals develop certain sorts of diseases, such as allergies. Research has already shown that women who own a dog during pregnancy are less likely to have children with allergies. However, it is important to stress that this association does not mean that owning a dog will prevent allergies, but could suggest that the likelihood of children developing allergies is reduced by the wider variety of microbes mothers are exposed to.
Recent research carried out by North Carolina State University and the University of Colorado has been looking at the bacteria that can be found in our homes and how it differs in homes with dogs, from homes without dogs.
The study aimed to find out what kinds of bacteria, and how many, could be found on different surfaces around each of the 40 homes in the study cohort. There were nine surfaces from which samples were collected: the TV screen, kitchen counter, refrigerator, toilet seat, cutting board, pillowcase, exterior door handle, the trim around an interior door, and the trim around an exterior door. Findings revealed over 7,700 different bacteria were present in the homes but not surprisingly, homes with dogs were found to have more types of bacteria (some of which is seldom found in homes that do not have dogs), and were 700 times more likely to have bacteria usually found in soil, compared to houses that do not have dogs. Even in places where your dog may not directly touch (e.g. your TV screen, or pillowcase) the study results could identify whether or not the household had a dog.
Out of the variables in the study cohort that influence microbial ecosystems, it was found that owning a dog had the biggest difference. The study is continuing to collect samples from households across the USA to find out which other variables may influence households’ microbial ecosystems (for example whether or not there are children in the home, the type of property, and whether it’s in a rural or urban area). For now, we know that our dogs certainly bring more types of bacteria into our homes, but that in itself may not necessarily be a bad thing!
To find out more about the study, please click here.
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Genetic variability in dog breeds
To join Dogslife, Labrador Retrievers must be registered with the Kennel Club of the UK. To register, dogs must have a five generation pedigree of registered Labradors. We want to make sure that all Dogslife dogs really are Labradors, because there is considerable difference between breeds that might confuse our interpretation of the results.
You might think that it would be easy to know that a dog is a Labrador Retriever, even without Kennel Club registration. After all, they have a characteristic body shape, tail and fur. It would be hard to misclassify a Labrador as something else, wouldn’t it?
We recently studied dog breeds to look at genetic variability between them. In this study, the breed recorded was what the owner or vet said, and it was not checked with the Kennel Club registration. We found that each breed in the study had a distinctive genetic pattern. But we also found that many dogs did not match the pattern of their stated breed, and were either cross bred (where we could see the pattern of at least one breed combined with another pattern) or mixed breed (where there was no obvious genetic pattern). It seems that the genetics tells us what the owners and vets can’t – whether a dog is purebred or not.
Some breeds were much more homogeneous than others. The Cavailer King Charles Spaniels were genetically much more similar to each other than the other breeds. They were collected at dog shows where they had to be Kennel Club registered. So by only enrolling Kennel Club registered Labrador Retrievers in Dogslife we are making sure that we are studying Labradors alone, and not a mixture with other breeds.
The Kennel Club is an important link in our data collection. We are grateful that the Kennel Club is supporting our research, not just by the funding we receive from the Kennel Club Charitable Trust, but also by encouraging owners of registered dogs to join Dogslife and validating that your Labrador really is a Labrador.
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Spinal problems in dogs (Part 1)
Whilst most of us will have developed back pain at some point in our lives, and half of us suffer from back pain each year, what do we know about back pain in our dogs? Unsurprisingly, dogs develop problems with their backs, which can lead to the development of clinical signs. The neck and back (vertebral column) contains the spinal cord, which (simplistically) is the bundle of nerves which facilitate the normal function of the limbs, chest, bladder, bowels and tail. The spinal cord runs through the neural canal, the tunnel which is created by the bony vertebra, which protects it from injury (Figure 1). However anything which encroaches into the neural canal can cause compression or injury to the spinal cord, as the neural canal is of a fixed diameter. Bruising and /or swelling of the spinal cord can also develop following injury. When the spinal cord is injured clinical signs will occur, which can range from spinal pain to neurological dysfunction.
Clinical signs of spinal problems might be observed as the dog demonstrating a painful posture, developing an in-coordinated gait, or completely losing the function of its legs and bladder. The severity of the clinical signs associated with spinal cord injury depends on the rate at which the spinal cord is injured, duration of cord injury, the severity of the injury, and the location of the injury. For example, problems in the cervical spine (neck) tend to affect the nerves going to both the forelimbs and hind limbs, whereas those of the thoracic or lumbar spine (back) tend to just affect the back legs. Similarly, the recovery from spinal cord disease depends on the severity and duration of the spinal cord injury, and is often impossible to predict accurately.
Intervertebral Disc Disease
The intervertebral discs are seated between the bones of the vertebral column, and permit the normal movement of vertebrae relative to each other. Problems with the discs of the spine occur in about 2% of dogs, and manifest as either an extrusion (or “herniation”) of the central part of the disc (Figure 2), or the protrusion (or enlargement) of the outer part of the disc into the neural canal. In both instances, the result is the compression of the spinal cord within the neural canal because there is very little “free” space around the spinal cord. Exercise induced disc extrusions also occur, where a small amount of disc leaks out with very high speed and bashes into the spinal cord. This does not cause significant spinal cord compression but does result in spinal cord swelling and bruising.
Dogs of any age can be affected by intervertebral disc disease, and there are no known predisposing “risk” factors. As a general rule, disc extrusions tend to cause rapid compression of the spinal cord, which is associated with more acute clinical signs, such as the dog going “off its legs”. Annular protrusions tend to be much slower, which the spinal cord tolerates better. Even though the overall compression can be marked, the clinical signs can be less severe. With exercise induced disc extrusions the clinical signs are very acute in onset, occur during activity and often result in the dog going “off its legs”. Treatment depends on the severity of the clinical signs and the nature of the disease. Medical treatment (pain relief and rest) can be successful in appropriately selected cases. Most nuclear extrusions are treated successfully by the surgical removal of disc material from the neural canal, which offers both a better chance of recovery, and a more predictable recovery than medical treatment. Protrusions are more challenging to surgically manage and may require additional stabilisation of the two vertebrae. The prognosis for recovery is often not as good and less predictable. With exercise induced disc extrusions, where only swelling/bruising of the spinal cord is present, surgery is not indicated. Most dogs will recover good function with this disease.
Find out more about spinal problems in dogs (Part 2) in next month’s newsletter.
Thanks to Steven Clarke of Willows Veterinary Referral Service for co-authoring the article.
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How tall is your Labrador? The height of our research!
Thank you to all our members who have taken their dog’s height measurements over the course of the study. We appreciate that measuring your dog is not always an easy task as dogs often run from the tape measure or wriggle around when being measured! We are very grateful for all your best efforts in recording their height. Initially, Dogslife asked members to record their dog’s height until they were one year of age, as often dogs are skeletally mature by this time, but some members were telling us that their Labrador Retrievers were still growing! We now ask members to record their dog’s height until they are 18 months of age, so over the course of the study we hope to find out at what age dogs really stop growing! We also ask for a height measurement to be recorded when dogs turn three years of age so that we can confirm the dog’s adult height at this stage.
From the data we have received in the study so far, there is a difference between the height of male dogs and female dogs. Our findings show that male dogs are on average slightly taller than female dogs (see Figure 1 below).
In the UK, the Kennel Club’s Breed Standard height for the Labrador Retriever is 56-57cms (22-22½ inches) for male dogs and 55-56cms (21½-22 inches) for female dogs. The Australian National Kennel Council and the Kennel Union of Southern Africa’s Breed Standard heights are the same as the UK’s, but both the American and Canadian Kennel Club’s Breed Standard is slightly taller: the height for male dogs is 57-62cms (22½-24½ inches) and for female dogs it is 54-60cms (21½-23½ inches). Don’t worry if your Labrador is larger or smaller than the Breed Standard heights mentioned, after all, Labradors come in all shapes and sizes just like us!
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Don't forget to come back to Dogslife to update your dog's record www.dogslife.ac.uk
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