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Beware! Your Stress is Passing to Your Dog, Says Study

Researchers focused on 58 people who own border collies or Shetland sheepdogs.
Stockholm, June 9, 2019: A dog and his parents relation goes far beyond of being a loyal friend. If a recent study is to be believed,  when dog owners go through a stressful period, they’re not alone in feeling the pain, their fur babies feel it too, a new study suggests. Dog owners experiencing long bouts of stress can transfer it to their dogs as per the recent study published in Scientific Reports.

In the study titled “Long-term stress levels are synchronized in dogs and their owners.” swedish researchers focused on 58 people who own border collies or Shetland sheepdogs. They examined hair from the dog owners and their dogs, looking at the concentrations of a hormone called cortisol, a chemical released into the bloodstream and absorbed by hair follicles in response to stress. As reported by media, Depression, excessive physical exercise and unemployment are just a few examples of stress that can influence the amount of cortisol found in your hair, said Lina Roth of Linkoping University in Sweden.

Roth and her team found that the patterns of cortisol levels in the hair of dog owners closely matached that found in their dogs in both winter and summer months, indicating their stress levels were in sync. She thinks the owners are influencing the dogs rather than the other way around because several human personality traits appear to affect canine cortisol levels. Many other factors could affect a person or dog’s stress levels and possibly even dampen them, she said. Buttner said cortisol levels don’t necessarily indicate “bad” stress. They instead can indicate a good experience like getting ready to go for a walk, she said. Roth and her team plan to investigate whether other dog breeds will react to their owners the same way. The researchers don’t know what causes the synchronization in cortisol levels between humans and their pups. But a hint might lie in the fact that the link is stronger with competitive dogs than in pet pooches. The bond formed between owner and competitive dogs during training may increase the canines’ emotional reliance on their owners, she said. That in turn could increase the degree of synchronization.But why do people influence their dogs rather than vice versa? Perhaps people are “a more central part of the dog’s life, whereas we humans also have other social networks,” Roth said in an email.

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Oral Vaccines for Dogs May Help To Counter Rabies in India

This vaccine is not yet licensed for use in the country.

April 6, 2019- Vaccines hidden in dog food could help curb the spread of rabies in countries with large populations of stray dogs, research suggests. Experts say the approach could help to vaccinate millions of street dogs around the world that are often responsible for spreading the disease to people.

 

Three times as many dogs could be vaccinated each day when the new process is combined with existing injectable techniques.Experts from Mission Rabies, the Worldwide Veterinary Service and the University of Edinburgh assessed the feasibility of the approach in Goa, India.

The oral rabies vaccine is not yet licensed for use in India so the team embedded empty capsules in dog food to test the concept.Working with the Government of Goa Animal Husbandry Department, teams on mopeds searched for free-roaming dogs, delivering capsules in attractive bait.

Each member of the team reached 35 dogs each day, compared with just nine using current vaccination methods.They accessed 80 per cent of the dogs they spotted, compared with 63 per cent when only using the catch-vaccinate-release method. As well as being more efficient, the researchers estimate that the combined vaccination approach could be cheaper, helping to further maximize limited resources.

There are an estimated 100 million stray dogs in India. Experts say that the combination of an injectable and oral vaccination approach could help them reach the minimum 70 per cent vaccine threshold needed to minimize risk of the disease being passed to people. Rabies is a serious brain infection that is usually caught from the bite or scratch of an infected animal, often a dog. The disease has been eliminated from many countries but remains challenging in countries where dogs are allowed to roam freely.

Around 59,000 people die each year from the infection with a further 29 million people needing costly treatments after being bitten by dogs in areas where the disease is rife.Researchers hope the study will provide evidence to support the introduction of the oral rabies vaccine in India as an extra tool in efforts to eradicate the disease.

The study, published in Vaccine X, also received funding from Dogs Trust Worldwide and donations of vaccines from MSD Animal Health.Dr. Luke Gamble, Founder of Mission Rabies, said: “Rabies has a massive impact on societies, not only from the disease, but also from the fear that results. In many parts of the world, reaction to rabies cases fuels inhumane mass culls of dogs, which does nothing to combat the virus. We are showing that there is another way that benefits , people and nations.”

Professor Mark Bronsvoort, of the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, said: “This kind of operational research is crucial in pushing the boundaries and finding a solution to the age-old problem of rabies. Dog populations vary, so it is essential that methods are evaluated methodically. We are excited that this approach could have far-reaching benefits.”

 

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Survey Says Dog Owners Are Much Happier Than Cat Owners

Finally an answer to age-old debate.

Parents of furry four footed canines may find a recent study pleasantly agreeable that they are happier than the feline masters. Newly reported findings from the General Social Survey may finally provide an answer for this age-old debate.

According to the report published in Washington Post the survey, 39 percent of American families don’t own a pet, 33 percent only own a dog, 11 percent only own a cat, 14 percent own both, and the other 4 percent have a small animal such as a bird or a lizard.

When asked if they were “very happy,” 36 percent of dog owners said “yes”, versus only 18 percent of cat owners. People who owned both a dog and a cat also reported even lower levels of happiness than those who only cared for a trusty canine (28 percent). Those who owned no pets at all were happier than you might expect (32 percent). What’s more, dog owners were also more likely than cat owners to seek comfort from their pet, play with them, and consider them a member of the family.

A study conducted in 2016 found that dog owners were more extroverted, more agreeable, and less neurotic than cat owners, so dog owners may simply be happier to begin with. Cat owners, meanwhile, may argue that the point of having a cat isn’t to be “happy” so much as to gaze upon their mysterious majesty from a polite distance

So if you’re a cat lover, you can react to this study the same way your cat would react to a bowl of spoiled milk. But if you’re a dog lover, feel free to send it over to all of your feline-obsessed friends as proof that dogs are the absolute best.

 

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