Pet dogs offer clues on human aging

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - One Purdue veterinarian believes the oldest Rottweilers in the country may hold the key to longer life for both dogs and humans.

Dr. David Waters said the study of aging can only get so far examining worms, flies and mice.

His pet project is through his work as the executive director of the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation. The Center for Exceptional Longevity Studies there established the first database tracking the oldest pet dogs in the nation, a project that's been more than a decade in the making.

"We've assembled this database of over 150 of these long-lived Rottweilers, equivalent to 100-year-old people," Waters said. "So they can be called canine centenarians."

This spring Waters and his team took the study to the next step, visiting the dogs in the study who are still alive. In March he embarked on a 23-day tour to meet and examine the 15 oldest living Rottweilers, all of which were older than 13 years old.

"More and more scientists are becoming interested in what's called 'health span,'" he said. "This is healthy longevity, not just adding more years onto life. And we think dogs can really bring something to the table in studying health span."

Now the team will enter the results from the "Old Grey Muzzle Tour" into the database, save samples of the dogs' DNA for future research and try to see what these dogs can teach us about our own aging process. So far, Waters says one trend seems to stand out.

"In the exceptionally long-lived dogs that I've studied, the thing that impresses me the most is their cancer resistance," he said. "Of the 15 dogs that I met on the Old Grey Muzzle Tour, 14 of the 15 had never had a diagnosis of cancer."

And while that could be a window into the field of cancer research, Waters said the scope of this study goes way beyond cancer.

"The Old Grey Muzzle tour has captured the imagination of a lot of folks," he said. "It's a testimony not only to the serious science, but also to the unshakable bond between pets and people."

In addition to his work at the Cancer Foundation, Waters is a Purdue University professor of Veterinary Medicine and associate director of the university's Center on Aging.

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