Dog Dust Protects Rodent Respiration

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This'll just take a minute.
Just thinking about dust almost makes you sneeze.
So you might think a house with dust and a dog would be a recipe for respiratory distress.
Well, think again.
Because a new study shows that exposure to dust taken from a dog owner's home actually prevents allergies and airway infection.
In mice, at least.
The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It's been known for a while that early exposure to a furry companion can reduce the risk of childhood allergies and asthma.
To find out why, researchers treated mice with dust from two homes: one with a canine resident and one was pet-free.
Turns out the rodents that were sprinkled with dog-imbued dust mounted a less aggressive immune response against a common allergen, cockroach protein.
Probing a little deeper, the researchers found the dog-dust mice had bacteria in their gut not found in the other mice, including a ton of one species of lactobacillus.
Exposing other mice to that bug alone warded off an allergic response,
and even protected them from infection with a respiratory virus.
So go tell Fido know that he's a good boy.
Because even if he doesn't fetch your slippers, he's likely contributing to your good health.
Thanks for the minute, for Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.