Five Decades of Information on Canine Environmental Pollutant Exposure: A Scientometric Analysis

Abstract In recent decades, there has been great concern associated with environmental pollution as a risk factor for the development of different diseases in humans, and the canine species has been considered one of the closest sentinel animal models to evaluate these effects. In this sense, a review was carried out to identify the advances and information gaps on this topic. For this, a Scientometric approach was used, with the application of quantitative statistical analysis to bibliography. Results revealed that there has been in increase in scientific production during the last 20 years in journals such as Science of the Total Environment, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and Environmental Health Perspectives , highlighting the participation of authors such as Sonne, Dietz and Letcher . In this way, the United States, Denmark , and Canada, as well as Universities such as Ehme, Aarhus, Hokkaido and California, are considered the most relevant countries and institutional affiliations in scientific production and collaboration in relation to this topic. In the same way, there is a growing interest in the development of various lines of research related to persistent organic compounds (PCBs, PBDEs) and heavy metals (Hg mainly), using dogs as sentinels, as well as the evaluation of new sources of contamination related to microorganisms. Finally, issues related to air pollutants, particulate matter and asthma appear as new areas of research, in which the canine sentinel model may show promise for the evaluation of its effects.