“Research has consistently shown families with dogs have lower rates of asthma, the idea being that they help us swim against the hygiene tide by traipsing their muddy paws around the house and sticking their noses into everything,” observes BBC science and health correspondent James Gallagher as he sets up his interview with CHILD investigator Dr. Anita Kozyrskyj.
The BBC 4 radio series The Second Genome explores how the diverse array of microbes that live on and in our bodies—our “second genome,” known as the microbiome—influences our metabolism and health. In the episode “Dirt and Development,” which aired late April 2018, Gallagher, the program host, spoke with Dr. Kozyrskyj about her finding, using CHILD Study data, that early exposure to furry pets affects the composition of the infant gut microbiome.
Listen to the full episode here (the segment with Dr. Kozryrskyj begins at 7 mins 41 secs).
