Turns out the dog days of summer are not ideal for dogs themselves. A study published last week in Scientific Reports by a team from the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Veterinary Medicine found that puppies born in the warm summer months have a higher risk of developing heart disease later in life.
The study examined health records from 129,778 dogs representing 253 breeds. The birth-month effect was particularly acute for puppies born at the height of summer—July—increasing the heart disease risk 74 percent. Dog breeds not normally predisposed to cardiovascular problems, such as Norfolk terriers and Berger Picards, were particularly affected, suggesting that the link may be environmental in nature.
Besides being warm and often humid in many parts of the United States, June, July, and August are also associated with higher levels of fine air particulates—pollutants that, in previous studies assessing prenatal environmental exposures, have been connected with elevated rates of cardiac abnormalities in humans.
Read more at Penn Medicine News.
