科研之友
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摘要
Population data on the rates and causes of death in dogs provide useful information on several levels. Breed-specific rates and estimates of the proportion of deaths in a breed due to certain causes can describe the current or ongoing health problems in that breed. These may inform health promotion strategies and their monitoring. The age pattern of death, especially estimates of survival to certain ages, is informative for current and prospective owners of a breed and for veterinarians and researchers. Comparing similarities and differences in patterns of mortality across breeds or genders may suggest theories about disease causation and direct research as to whether a certain cause of death may be a function of, for example, genotype or phenotype, conformation, physiology, temperament or usage. Undoubtedly dog-breeding practices have had an impact on the general health of the canine population as well as on the occurrence of inherited diseases [22]. Quantifying the disease burden in a population, either within or across breeds, is necessary to monitor changes in disease and death rates over time that may relate to natural causes, environmental changes or human interventions. Monitoring disease in animal populations may also inform efforts to identify, for example, environmental causes of deaths in humans.In several studies tumours have been indicated as the most common cause of death in dogs, followed by various other diseases [6], Bernardi 1988, [4,3]. A recent study on a British insurance database indicated that tumours are a frequent cause of claims [10]. In some studies it has been shown that different causes of death are related to the age of the dog Anderson %26 Rosenblatt 1965, [6], Bernardi 1988, [4,9,18]. For example, [4] showed that the mean age at death of Bernese mountain dogs that died from trauma was almost four years. In the same study, the mean age at death of those Bernese mountain dogs that had died of cancer was almost seven years. In earlier work
