Dog News and Health Watch: Commercial Pet Foods, Environmental Chemicals Affect Dog Fertility Endangering Canine Populace; Human Males Too?
Dog As Man's Bestfriend We Know Today May Be Endangered in the Future
Fertility among dogs has plummeted over the years and this may cause them to be endangered and possibly extinct in the future.
Researchers from the University of Nottingham have published a study that found sperm count in male dogs have decreased. The decline in male dog fertility was linked to the substances found in commercial pet foods and environmental chemicals. They also found that this trend was also present among male humans.
Declining Fertility Among Dogs
Researchers from the University of Nottingham led by United Nations' Richard G. Lea found that sperm quality among the dogs in their study have declined over the years. Their study involved five breeds of dogs including Border Collie, German Shepherd, Curly Coat Retriever, Labrador Retriever and Golden Retriever.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
In the course of 26 years, the scientists took samples from the dogs and found that their fertility has decreased.
They found a 3 percent sperm fertility decline from 1988 to 1999 and about 1.3 percent decrease from 2002 to 2014. The researchers also noted that they found chemicals in the sperm and testes of the dogs in the study. The report of their analysis has been published online at Scientific Reports.
Commercial Pet Foods, Environmental Chemicals to Blame?
The researchers linked that the decreasing male fertility may be caused by the commercial pet foods that the dogs were consuming. Furthermore, they believe that it also caused by chemicals found in their surroundings.
"This is the first time that such a decline in male fertility has been reported in the dog and we believe this is due to environmental contaminants, some of which we have detected in dog food and in the sperm and testes of the animals themselves," Lea said in a statement.
They looked at other possible factors like genetic condition but ultimately ruled it out because the rate of the decline is too steep after a couple of decades.
Decreasing Male Fertility Trending Among Human Males
Gizmodo points out that human males may also have a similar experience in declining male fertility. Man and dog do share the same surroundings and if canine fertility is decreasing due to environmental chemicals, the same could be same for men as well.
Do you believe that the decreasing male fertility trend in dogs will affect men too? Let us know in the comments below.
