A team of researchers from the University of Alberta (Canada) has found that children in families with pets have higher levels of two types of microbes associated with a lower chance of developing allergies and obesity.
Why does this happen? Scientists think that exposure in the first years of life to bacteria and dirt typical of animals could strengthen the defenses of the smallest, although they do not know for sure how the phenomenon occurs.
Good microbes for the baby
Anita Kozyrskyj –paediatrician, epidemiologist and research director– and her colleagues have found that children whose pregnant mothers own pets –especially dogs–, and who are in contact with these animals up to three months after birth, have more bacteria of the genera Ruminococcus and Oscillospira. Previous research has shown that the abundance of these microorganisms is related to a lower probability of suffering from allergies or obesity during childhood.
According to Kozyrskyj, it seems that exposure to pets alters the mother’s intestinal flora , and that this in turn influences that of the fetus, strengthening it. And he adds a surprising fact: the effect is the same in the newborns of families that give their pet for adoption just before delivery as in those of those that keep them. The healthy exchange of microbes supports the health of the baby even before it comes into the world.
This work confirms two decades of research that had observed that children who grow up with pets are less likely to be asthmatic, and shows that the strengthening of the infant’s immune system occurs even in three scenarios that reduce the defenses of newborns: cesarean section , administering antibiotics to the mother during childbirth, and not receiving breastfeeding.
Kozyrskyj believes that living with dogs, cats and other domestic animals has an additional positive effect on the baby’s health: it reduces the chances that the mother will transmit a group B streptococcal infection, which causes pneumonia in newborns, during childbirth. born.
