One Health Commission, EPA launch pet health survey
The One Health Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency are working together on the National Pet Health Survey, a research project using voluntary input from dog and cat owners to identify pet health trends and disease hot spots across the United States.
According to the survey page on the OHC website, "Because pets often share their owners' living spaces and have accelerated life spans, they can also be important indicators of human exposure to chemicals and potential health risks. Pets can be sentinels for diseases and exposures in a shared environment."
The survey will provide scientists, pet owners, and the general public with one of the largest health and disease databases for pet dogs and cats across the United States. The data will be summarized and integrated into the EPA's EnviroAtlas website at www.epa.gov/enviroatlas. Through EnviroAtlas, the public will be able to view pet health information by specified areas, such as zip codes or states, to learn about emerging pet health issues.
The survey began accepting responses from dog and cat owners in October. Data collection will take place until Jan. 20, 2020, or until 300,000 respondents have filled out the survey, whichever comes first.
The survey page is available at http://jav.ma/enviropets. Additional information is available by emailing petsurvey
onehealthcommission [dot] org (petsurvey[at]onehealthcommission[dot]org).