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. 2023 Aug 17;19(1):125.
doi: 10.1186/s12917-023-03691-4.

The MARS PETCARE BIOBANK protocol: establishing a longitudinal study of health and disease in dogs and cats

Janet E Alexander  1 , Serina Filler  2 , Philip J Bergman  3 , Claire E Bowring  2 , Laura Carvell-Miller  2 , Brenda Fulcher  4 , Richard Haydock  2 , Teresa Lightfoot  4 , Darren W Logan  2 , Talon S McKee  3 , Tracy Mills  3 , JoAnn Morrison  5 , Phillip Watson  2 , Colby Woodruff  6 ; Mars Petcare Biobank Project Team
Collaborators, Affiliations

The MARS PETCARE BIOBANK protocol: establishing a longitudinal study of health and disease in dogs and cats

Janet E Alexander et al. BMC Vet Res. .

Abstract

Background: The veterinary care of cats and dogs is increasingly embracing innovations first applied to human health, including an increased emphasis on preventative care and precision medicine. Large scale human population biobanks have advanced research in these areas; however, few have been established in veterinary medicine. The MARS PETCARE BIOBANK™ (MPB) is a prospective study that aims to build a longitudinal bank of biological samples, with paired medical and lifestyle data, from 20,000 initially healthy cats and dogs (10,000 / species), recruited through veterinary hospitals over a ten-year period. Here, we describe the MPB protocol and discuss its potential as a platform to increase understanding of why and how diseases develop and how to advance personalised veterinary healthcare.

Methods: At regular intervals, extensive diet, health and lifestyle information, electronic medical records, clinicopathology and activity data are collected, genotypes, whole genome sequences and faecal metagenomes analysed, and blood, plasma, serum, and faecal samples stored for future research.

Discussion: Proposed areas for research include the early detection and progression of age-related disease, risk factors for common conditions, the influence of the microbiome on health and disease and, through genome wide association studies, the identification of candidate loci for disease associated genetic variants. Genomic data will be open access and research proposals for access to data and samples will be considered. Over the coming years, the MPB will provide the longitudinal data and systematically collected biological samples required to generate important insights into companion animal health, identifying biomarkers of disease, supporting earlier identification of risk, and enabling individually tailored interventions to manage disease.

Keywords: Biomarker; Canine; Cohort; Disease; Feline; Genomic; Longitudinal; Microbiome; Prospective; Repository; Risk factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors were employees of Mars Petcare business units during the development of the study.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Graphical representation of states containing MARS PETCARE BIOBANK recruiting veterinary hospitals at launch. States with participating hospitals coloured in black and without participating hospitals in light grey. This map was generated in Microsoft Excel, powered by Bing, © GeoNames, Microsoft, Navinfo, TomTom, Wikipedia
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Schematic timeline of the MARS PETCARE BIOBANK data collections. DHLS: diet health and lifestyle survey, QoL; quality of life, ELS: end of life survey
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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