Dogs help Infants Fight Back Respiratory Infection

In order to determine the identity of the microbial species which confer protection against this respiratory pathogen, the University of California, San Fransico, came up with a study that, the microbes living on your pet dog helps to strengthen the immune system of your infants and preventing childhood asthma. This study was presented in 2012 General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

For an infant suffering with severe cases of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), it is very difficult to bounce back to normal healthy living because they have an increased chance of developing Asthma. Houses with and without dogs, have different types of bacterial communities in them. 

According to sources, Kei Fujimura - a researcher on the study says, "In this study we found that feeding mice house dust from homes that have dogs present protected them against a childhood airway infectious agent, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).  RSV infection is common in infants and can manifest as mild to severe respiratory symptoms.  Severe infection in infancy is associated with a higher risk of developing childhood asthma."

In order to go ahead with their findings, the researchers compared three groups of animals.  Mice fed house dust from homes with dogs before being infected with RSV, mice infected with RSV without exposure to dust and a control group of mice not infected with RSV. They found that mice fed dust did not exhibit symptoms associated with RSV-mediated airway infection, such as inflammation and mucus production.  They also possessed a distinct gastrointestinal bacterial composition compared to animals not fed dust.

The researchers believe that, this study supports the previous findings where pets in particular dogs, were associated with protection against childhood asthma development.

Fujimura concludes saying, "This led us to speculate that microbes within dog-associated house dust may colonize the gastrointestinal tract, modulate immune responses and protect the host against the asthmagenic pathogen RSV. This study represents the first step towards determining the identity of the microbial species which confer protection against this respiratory pathogen."