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US EPA National Pet Health Survey
Citation:
Mehaffey, M., J. Daniel, M. Morgan, D. Ebert, AND M. McDonald. US EPA National Pet Health Survey. ACES 2018 – A Community on Ecosystem Services, Washington, DC, December 03 - 06, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
This project assess the spatial and temporal trends in pet diseases/health issues in residential settings and identify hotspots across the US. (Short Term Impact) Research provides EPA, scientists, and the public with a new Agency database on disease/health data in human sentinels across the US. (Long-term Impacts) Research provides EPA, scientists, and the public with survey results as data layers to be served in EPA/ORD’s public website and mapping application EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas).
Description:
As a society, we are interested in living in a clean and safe environment which protects and enhances our health and the health of those under our care. The interaction of chemical and non-chemical stressors from indoor and outdoor environmental exposures can result in unintended consequences such as increased spread of vector borne disease, antimicrobial resistant bacteria, and asthma. Working across disciplines, the One Health framework, provides a network of knowledge for tackling these complex health issues for not only humans, but domestic animals, wildlife and the environment. Recent epidemiological studies have reported comparable exposure and health responses in humans and domestic pets, such as, levels of heavy metals in the blood due to ingestion of lead or exposure to mercury, respiratory ailments from inhalation of particulates (wildfire smoke), common lymphomas, and infectious diseases. In this study, ecologists, veterinarians and health scientists from the One Health Commission (OHC), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection have developed a short (6-minute) online survey on pet cats and dogs with questions related to their indoor and outdoor environments, behavior and health issues. The intent of the survey is to shed light on pet health and disease issues across the US. The survey collection began in October 2017 and as of April 2018 over 2000 complete participant responses have been collected. Preliminary results show that 70% of respondents’ cats and dogs spend most of their life at their current residence. Also, pets spent ~80% of their time inside the home and ~4% of their time outdoors at state or local parks. Half the homes were located within suburban neighborhoods, with low to moderate traffic and smoke exposure. Forty-five percent of the respondents reported using pesticides at their homes. The most frequently reported pet non-cancer illnesses were obesity, respiratory, stomach and bladder disease. Only 6% of the respondents reported any type of cancer occurring in their pets; the most frequently reported cancers were lymphatic and skin. Initial exploration of the spatial distribution of the survey respondents indicated that at least one complete survey has come from each of the 48 states of the conterminous U.S. The survey will continue for another two years or until 300,000 surveys have been completed. By combining the survey results with indicator data from the EPA’s EnviroAtlas we will be able to explore spatial differences in pet health and diseases that have potential associations with ecosystem stressors such as pesticide use and impervious surface, drivers of change such as population density and climate, and ecosystem services such as nearby water bodies and natural areas.