Ever wish your dog could live forever?

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Some recent research out of Seattle aims to extend the life of your pooch. Don’t get your hopes up too much, it won’t happen overnight.

The first part of the research is done, now comes the longitudinal study says pathology professor Matt Kaberlein with the University of Washington. “We want to follow these dogs over time. One of the great things about dogs is we can actually do this study in about 10 years. For many breeds of dogs, we can follow them from birth until old age or even death in a decade wheras similar studies in humans would take many, many decades.”

“You never know until you actually do the experiment. But everything about the biology suggests that it’s likely. I don’t know if it will 25 per cent or 15 per cent or 30 per cent [longer].” He says no matter what, it’s worth it. “Even if it’s only a year, I think many dog owners, if they could have an extra year with their pet in the prime, healthy part of their animal’s lives, that would have huge value for them. I know it certainly would for me.”

The goal is to eventually be able to extend the lives of all types of dogs, and then eventually see how that knowledge can be applied to other pets and humans.

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