Reading and understanding scientific studies isn't easy. From what I understand these studies were done on mice. It is very difficult to be certain these same results will be found in dogs. MICE ARE NOTORIOUS FOR THEIR TUMOR MAKING ABILITY. It states: The tumors occurred at
"a low incidence rate (approximately 1%), but did result in the early
sacrifice of most affected animals, due to tumor size and occasional
metastases."
So only 1% of the mice were affected. AGAIN, YOU CANNOT GENERALIZE THIS INFORMATION TO DOGS.
It kind of bothers me that the article states:
"Additional studies related to cancer tumors at the site of microchip affect
implants have been conduced in China; however, at this time these
studies are not available in English."
No one can translate???
I'm not familiar with this publication, so I don't know how good of a science editor they have, but sometimes journalists like to create an attention-grabbing story even if it does scare a few people.
The link that was included, from a reputable source, is about finding a tumor at the site of the microchip in one dog. For all the dogs that have been microchipped, IT IS TRULY REMARKABLE THAT THEY HAVE ONLY FOUND ONE DOG WITH ONE. This article is an abstract and you have to pay to read the whole thing, and I didn't want to pay.
I think the only real information this article gives us is 1% of microchipped mice grow tumors and perhaps more research needs to be done.
I plan to go ahead a microchip Joey next month, but doortego I really wish you would ask you Vet why she doesn't do microchipping. I'm hoping the benefits outweigh the risk.
Nancy |