We let them sleep with us. Hell, we even indulge them with a kiss every so often (pretty often in fact)! If this is you, then read on for great news.
How they found out who is cleaner – man or dog
With over 80 million dogs throughout Europe, loved and adored by their human families, a few medical professionals in Switzerland decided to look at the possibility of humans and dogs sharing MRI scanners. There are few vet facilities that offer scanning to pets because of the cost of equipment. But if hospital scanners are available, why then can our dogs not be whipped through them? To answer the eternal question: “Who is cleaner?” these researchers decided to compare the bacterial loads in 30 dogs and 18 bearded men, all undergoing MRI scans.
Swabs were taken from between the shoulder blades, and in the mouths of all 18 dogs. Similarly, swabs were taken from the beards and mouths of all 30 men.
Bacterial loads were also measured in the MRI scanners shared by dogs and men, and compared to scanners used by humans only.
Are dogs cleaner than humans? Drumroll please!
High bacterial loads were found in the beards of all 18 men, and significantly more than in the dogs’ fur. When it came to mouths, again, men had more bacteria in their mouths than the dogs. And finally, the scanners did not have any difference in bacterial counts when comparing the human only scanner to that shared by man and dog.
The study concluded that dogs can be considered “clean” compared to men with beards.
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