Health via Nutrition, Epidemiology and Disease Detection Dogs

DogRisk is a research group at the department of equine and small animal medicine at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Helsinki. We do in­de­pend­ent research on the associations between dogs' nu­tri­tion and their dis­eases. We are interested in preventing diseases. Our One-Health focused group has realized that dogs and people often nowadays suffer from the same diseases. They also share the same living environment, are subjected to the same toxins, drink the same water, and often even share the same food. Philogenetically dogs are much closer to humans than mice or other laboratory animals and the sterile environment of laboratory animals is not at all similar to that of humans. The dog is therefore an excellent model for research of diseases that humans and dogs have in common. The group also study diet, nutraceuticals, and other non-conventional therapies for these same diseases. In addition, one part of the research group study scent detection dogs.

Our multidisciplinary research group help to uncover reasons behind diseases and study treating them un-conventionally. These are diseases that humans have in common with dogs: e.g. allergy, atopy, cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, osteoarthritis, hypothyroidism, irritable bowl syndrome etc. They are affecting the lives of millions of people and they are also a big burden to millions of dogs and their owners. We are interested in associations between diseases, nutrition, environment, gene-expression, metabolomics, minerals and trace-elements, microbiota etc. By using client-owned dogs as our study population, we are hoping to help both man's best friend and people to have happier and healthier lives.