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Life expectancy of beagles
Author(s) -
Yu Shiguang
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.738.4
Subject(s) - life expectancy , medicine , demography , gerontology , population , environmental health , sociology
Life expectancy of beagles was calculated from 303 beagles (162 female and 141 male) with known birth and death dates. Most of the dogs were either spayed or castrated during the first year of their life. Both natural death and euthanasia due to terminal illness were considered as a death event. These beagles received regular veterinary medical care during their life. Gender had no effect on median survival of beagles (male = 12.82 years; female = 12.87 years; p = 0.610). Therefore, combined data of both male and female beagles were used for the calculation of the life expectancy. The age specific median residual lifetime (age in years/median residual lifetime in years) was 0.5/12.8, 1.5/12.1, 2.5/11.1, 3.5/10.1, 4.5/9.1, 5.5/8.2, 6.5/7.2, 7.5/6.3, 8.5/5.4, 9.5/4.5, 10.5/3.7, 11.5/2.8, 12.5/2.1, 13.5/1.6, 14.5/1.2, and 15.5/0.6. Mortality increased dramatically in beagles after 9 years of age (95% CI: 8.7, 10.0 years). The results of this study suggest that earlier diagnostic or therapeutic intervention is warranted in beagles beginning at 9 years of age. This study was supported by Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc.