ot: Lab animals and pets face obesity epidemic - environmental factors beyond diet and exercise are at least partly to blame - diabetes significance

[Guest guest]

Given the associations among obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes,

the following finding seems to be calling attention to a mysterious

factor(s) relevant to both the diabetes- and the obesity-epidemics. ~

Lab animals and pets face obesity epidemic.

<http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101124/full/news.2010.628.html>

By Alla Katsnelson Nature 27 November 2010

A statistical analysis of more than 20,000 animals suggests that the

obesity epidemic is spreading to family pets, wild animals living in

close proximity to humans, and animals housed in research centres ---

perhaps indicating that environmental factors beyond diet and exercise

are at least partly to blame.

, a biostatistician at the University of Alabama at

Birmingham and lead author on a study published online today in the

Proceedings of the Royal Society B, stumbled across the trend while

looking for a relationship between body weight and longevity in a

population of marmosets housed at the Wisconsin National Primate

Research Center in Madison. He decided to take a closer look. He and his

colleagues examined changes in weight in a total of 24 populations (12

male and 12 female), drawn from 8 different species, including primates

and rodents used for research, domestic cats and dogs, and urban feral

rats.

more... <http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101124/full/news.2010.628.html>

The study:

Klimentidis, Y. C. /et al. / Proc. R. Soc. B doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1890

<http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.1890> (2010).