If you let your dog lick your mouth, you’ll probably both swap plenty of nastiness, like bacteria and even parasites. But there is one particular parasite you won’t have to worry about swapping, because there’s a good chance you both share it. A team of researchers recently found there’s a parasite usually found in human mouths that one in six dogs may carry, too.
According to a study published in Veterinary Research Communications by scientists at Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences in Poland, our beloved doggies are harboring Trichomonas tenax. This microscopic parasite hangs out between your gums and teeth, feeding on scraps and occasionally causing gross periodontal infections.
Researchers swabbed 238 house pets and discovered these oral squatters in 17 percent of dogs and nearly 6 percent of cats. Older dogs over nine years old and those sporting thick coats of disgusting tooth tartar were the most likely to host the parasite.
Your Dog Might Be Carrying a Human Mouth Parasite, According to New Research
How are dogs getting it? Probably from us, though the researchers could not say that definitively. But that makes the most sense, especially since all the infected cats in the study were strictly indoor kitties whose main contact with the outside world was through their owners. Dogs had even higher infection rates, which makes sense considering one of their primary modes of emotional expression is licking faces.
More research is needed before a definitive cause and effect can be established, but if it can be, then these trichomonads, which churn out all sorts of gross enzymes that break down collagen and destroy soft tissue, destroying your gums and your dogs’, we still need to figure out to what extent we are sharing this parasite.
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