Mars Petcare is seeking 10,000 dogs and 10,000 cats for a biobank — an aggregation of biological samples, images and other data — that aims to improve the health of house pets by detecting maladies earlier.
. This initiative may be the largest and most ambitious so far to try to pinpoint what triggers disease in healthy pets by sifting through genomic patterns.
"The overall aim is to improve pet care of the future and health outcomes, and to improve the health span and quality of life of our pets," says Kay O'Donnell, vice president of the Waltham Petcare Science Institute, a division of Mars Petcare.Mars Inc., the giant conglomerate that makes M&M's and Snickers, has a division that runs chains of veterinary hospitals and makes products like Pedigree dog food and Iams cat food.
Using "longitudinal physiological data from the samples collected," the study will seek to "understand the differences between pets that are healthy as they age and pets that develop diseases," Mars PetcareWhile there are other animal biobanks, "they are either targeting a specific disease or a specific breed," O'Donnell tells Axios. "This will be the first general population cat and dog biobank," recruiting purebreds and mutts.
Over the decadelong pet study, "some of them will go on to be healthy, and some will go on to develop disease," O'Donnell notes. Under the biobank's supervision, there will be "early recognition of changes, and therefore the ability to intervene early and improve outcomes," she said.
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