The Labrador Retriever – also known as the Labrador Retriever or Labrador Retriever – is a breed of dog originally from Newfoundland, Canada and one of the most abundant and popular in the world for its sociability and good character . However, it has a problem, which many of its owners can attest: its tendency to obesity. The truth is that between 34% and 59% of dogs living in industrialized countries are overweight , which contributes to reducing their life expectancy and leads to mobility problems, diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Well, a study by a scientific team led by the University of Cambridge and published in the journal Cell Metabolism, has discovered a gene associated with canine obesity . The veterinarian Eleanor Raffan, a surgeon and geneticist at the University of Cambridge, says that “we have found a common finding in a quarter of Labrador retrievers that links their obsession with food to a biological reason.” It is a gene called POMC , which was identified in a group of Labradors of which 15 were obese.
In obese specimens, there was the fact that they had a section of DNA encoded at the end of that gene , which makes it difficult to produce a chemical in the brain that serves to warn the body that it is no longer hungry after eating. a meal. So these animals always have an appetite. A similar gene variant has also been seen in people with obesity problems. “There are even some cases of obese people who lack a very similar part of the POMC gene,” according to Stephen O’Rahilly, co-director of the Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Institute.
Those dogs with POMC suppression, which occurs in approximately 23% of Labradors, weighed an average of two kilos more than the rest of the dogs . The study also found that POMC suppression was quite common among Labradors used in rescue and rescue work. It seems possible that these dogs are more stimulated by food and thus are more likely to be selected for rescue programs, in which animals are historically trained using food rewards. Hence, the owners of Labrador retrievers must be more strict in controlling the amounts of food they give them and do not allow themselves to be cajoled when they look at them with their big eyes.
Photo credit: dmealiffe/CC BY-SA 2.0
