Pets as sentinels of human exposure

Abstract:

Companion animals have been proposed as sentinels of human exposure to environmental agents. Like people, pets are exposed to infectious diseases and environmental contaminants in the air, soil, water, and food, and can suffer from acute and chronic diseases as a result of such exposure; they can thus provide an early warning of either chemical or biological environmental hazards. Most of the available information on the use of pets as sentinels is related to cats and dogs; however, other domestic species-such as rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, and caged birds-can also be used. Ever since the first studies on pets as sentinel species, the focus has been on cancer in dogs, although dogs and cats have also been demonstrated to be excellent animal models for aerial exposure, mainly to tobacco smoke in the domestic environment, and also other atmospheric contaminants in urban and industrialized areas. Dogs and cats have also proved to be good sentinels of domestic exposure to lead and dietary exposure to methylmercury, respectively. Finally, special attention has been recently placed on the role of pets as sentinels of biological hazards such as emerging infectious diseases or related to bioterrorism.

Año de publicación:

2019

Keywords:

• Chemicals
• Infectious diseases
• Cats
• dogs
• Bioterrorism
• Pets
• Pollution
• Cáncer
• Sentinels
• Human exposure
• Zoonotic

Fuente:

scopus