The creation of Penn Vet's Working Dog Center was inspired by the search and rescue dogs that responded to the 9/11 attacks.
Credit: Yolanda ChenA recent Penn study found that search-and-rescue dogs who worked during 9/11 have fared well, facing minimal long-term health complications.
Researchers at Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine conducted a study tracking the health, longevity, and causes of death of 95 search-and-rescue dogs deployed to the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and Fresh Kills Landfill in New York following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The study found that deployment to these sites did not impact longevity or cause of death, United Press International reported.
These findings suggest that working dogs face minimal long-term health risks from working at fire and crash sites, Fast Company reported.
The health of the 95 dogs was compared to the health outcomes of 55 search-and-rescue dogs who did not work on 9/11. The study, which was published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association on Monday, used annual medical examinations, including chest x-rays and blood work. 63 dogs underwent a postmortem examination, or necropsy.
The study found that, for dogs who underwent necropsy, particles in the lungs were significantly more common in exposed dogs than in unexposed dogs, Fast Company reported.
Exposed dogs, however, had a slightly higher median age of death compared to unexposed dogs, with a median age of 12.8 years versus 12.7 years, Fast Company reported. Respiratory disease was uncommon in both exposed and unexposed dogs, and 4 of 5 cases of pulmonary neoplasia, a type of lung tumor, occurred in unexposed dogs.
The most common causes of death for exposed dogs were age-related conditions, like arthritis and cancer, which was also true of the control group, EurekAlert reported.
“Honestly, this was not what we expected; it’s surprising and wonderful,” co-author Cynthia Otto, director of the Working Dog Center at Penn Vet, told EurekAlert.
Otto, who worked at Ground Zero, told EurekAlert that dogs have more tolerant lungs than humans, which prevents them from developing respiratory conditions like asthma even when exposed to hazardous conditions. She added that the increased fitness levels of working dogs compared to pet dogs may have countered the effects of deployment conditions on their health.
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