The National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded new funding for the next five-year phase of the Dog Aging Project. The nationwide study follows tens of thousands of companion dogs to learn about healthy aging. The project launched in 2018. Researchers plan to follow the dogs for longer and expand studies of genetics, nutrition and home environments. The five-year plan includes about $29 million in NIH support, starting with a $6.1 million award for the first year.
Kate Creevy, a professor at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, serves as the project's chief veterinary officer and co-directs it with Daniel Promislow of Tufts University. Tufts is the primary award recipient, and Texas A&M is participating through a subaward. The project has nearly 55,000 dogs enrolled, and owners share information about their dogs' health, behavior and daily lives.
Promislow said dogs offer a useful view of human aging because they share people's environments and often experience similar age-related diseases. Creevy said the first five years produced a large amount of information on how long dogs live and what causes their deaths. She said the next five years are expected to focus on why those outcomes occur.