Early exposure to canine allergens may play a role in asthma risk.
Your Back Page scribbler is wise enough these days to realise that stirring the pot on the “cats versus dogs” debate is a fool’s game.
Hell hath no fury like a fur-baby lover scorned.
Having said that, sometimes we just have to report what we read and let the cards fall as they may.
In news that will delight fans of canine companions, we learn that having a dog about the place may well reduce the chances of the human babies living in that household of developing childhood asthma. What’s more, the same protective effect cannot be said about owning a cat.
According to a study presented this week to the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam, babies exposed to dog allergens had around a 48% lower risk of developing asthma by the age of five years, compared with other children.
And that was not the only upside of having a dog pal. The researchers said babies exposed to higher levels of the potential allergen Can f1 (a protein shed in dog skin and saliva) also had better lung function and that this protective effect was even stronger in infants who were at a higher genetic risk of worse lung function.
The research team from The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, meanwhile found no protective effect for babies exposed to a cat allergen protein called Fel d1 nor to a feline bacterial molecule called endotoxin.
To reach these conclusions, the boffins tested a group of 1050 children who were part of the Canadian CHILD cohort study and analysed samples of dust from the children’s homes taken when they were between three and four months old.
When the children reached age five, they were assessed for asthma by a doctor and their lung function was measured. The children also gave blood samples so they could be assessed for genetic risk factors for asthma and allergies.
Speaking ahead of the presentation, one of the research team, Dr Jacob McCoy, told media that while they didn’t know why this effect occurred, the study suggested early exposure to dog allergens could prevent sensitisation, perhaps by altering the nasal microbiome or by some impact on the immune system.
“Our findings highlight the potential protective role of dog allergens, but we need to do more research to understand the link between early-life exposure to dog allergens, lung function and asthma during early childhood,” he said.
The Back Page has already reported on the important role that dogs can play in stress relief as well as the superpowers our pooches possess on the olfactory front, so the ledger is really starting to stack up in favour of the mutt lovers out there.
We strongly suspect, however, that the world’s cats and their monkey servant owners couldn’t give a rat’s arse about what the science says.
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