Okay, this research might make animal rights activists wince! Making babies sleep on animal fur in their first three months of infancy can potentially reduce the risk of asthma in childhood.
According to a study finding, exposure to the microbial environment in animal skin and fur might act as a shield against asthma and allergies.
Researchers analyzed data from a German birth cohort called Lisaplus. The cohort included over 3,000 healthy newborns that were mostly recruited in 1998.
The team examined the exposure of the newborns to animal skin during the first three months of life. They also assessed the information on the health of children until the age of 10 years. Researchers took information of 2,441 children into account and noted that 55 percent of these included sleeping on animal skin in the first three months of life.
The analysis showed that sleeping on animal skin reduced the risk of a number of factors associated with asthma. The team found that the risk of developing asthma at the age of 6 years was 79 percent less in children who slept on animal skin after birth. Moreover, the risk decreased to 41 percent as children reached the age of 10.
"Previous studies have suggested that microbes found in rural settings can protect from asthma. An animal skin might also be a reservoir for various kinds of microbes, following similar mechanisms as has been observed in rural environments. Our findings have confirmed that it is crucial to study further the actual microbial environment within the animal fur to confirm this association," said Dr Christina Tischer, from the Helmholtz Zentrum München Research Centre.
The findings of the research were presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress in Munich.
