Radioactive Dogs? See What Happened to the Chernobyl Dogs

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. In the nearly four decades since the catastrophe, much has been said about the event: books, documentaries, films and series have been created.

We know a little about what happened to the plant, the people who were there and their descendants. But what about those who didn’t leave there… the dogs of Chernobyl?

The HBO series about the accident took some time to talk about these residents of Pripyat. To prevent the spread of radioactive waste and disease, military squads were responsible for a neutralization operation.

Another place where we can see a mention of the perspective of pets is in the book “Chernobyl Prayer”, written by Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich.

She reconstructed the terrifying first days of the disaster through the accounts of survivors of the accident. In the book, Alexievich includes the trauma people suffered from having to leave their pets behind.

In some of these accounts, one person recalled:

“[…] dogs howling, trying to get into the buses. Mongolians, Alsatians. The soldiers pushed them out again, kicking them.

They chased the buses for a long time. Grief-stricken families pinned notes on their doors: ‘Don’t kill our Zhulka. She’s a good dog.'”

The military squad’s attempt was not 100% effective, as some dogs managed to escape and survive in the forests surrounding the plant and near the city of Pripyat.

About 25 years later, a new containment structure was built over the damaged reactor. At this time, the area became a destination for “disaster tourism.” As the movement of people, Chernobyl dogs migrated to these areas, where people fed them.

When University of South Carolina evolutionary biologist Timothy Mousseau arrived on the scene in 2017, the stray dog ​​population was around 750.

As the dog population grew, authorities became concerned about the risk of rabies.

What is currently being done by the Chernobyl dogs?

In 2016, the Clean Future Fund (CFF) was created in the United States with the intention of offering support and medical assistance to communities affected by disasters. In this context, the dogs of Chernobyl caught the foundation’s attention.

With permission from the Exclusion Zone Management Authorities, the CFF can provide the dogs with necessary veterinary care and carry out population control.

To accomplish this task, the foundation set up a hospital in one of the old buildings, and Mousseau organized a laboratory to accompany the veterinarians during the procedures.

Due to the amounts of radioactive contaminants present in the animals’ systems, they cannot be removed from the area, but the dogs receive essential care.

Jennifer Betz, the veterinarian responsible for directing the program, described the process performed on the animals:

“We capture the dogs, neuter them, vaccinate them, microchip them, tag them… And Tim has been putting dosimeters in their earrings.

Then we release them back to where they came from so they can live out their lives as happily and healthily as possible.”

Using dosimeters, which researchers retrieve months or years later, it is possible to determine total exposure to radiation.

CFF co-founder and president Erik Kambarian explains that, so far, data shows that dogs living near the reactor site are experiencing radiation levels that are thousands or tens of thousands of times higher than normal.

A friendly paw

In addition to the CFF initiative, Mousseau and Elaine Ostranger, who directs the Dog Genome Project at the National Human Genome Research Institute, are leading a high-impact study of the Chernobyl dog population.

The pair are working on research that has the potential to transform everything we know about the effects of radiation on mammals. It could even help us understand the effects of radiation on humans, the researchers say. But how is it done?

Mosseau collects blood and tissue samples from the dogs for DNA analysis, and Ostrander is responsible for sequencing those DNA samples.

Elaine recently made a post on Science Advancesin which he describes the discovery of the genetic structure of 302 mixed breed dogs that are in the region, identifying 15 different families, between large and small breeds.

An important part of the study was establishing who was who and where the animals lived, since radiation levels vary greatly. So Mousseau decided to include the location of where each animal was captured when the blood samples were collected.

To get an idea of ​​the importance of the biological experience of these animals, understand that they lived and evolved in isolation for 15 generations since the nuclear accident.

They are known to die young, at three or four years of age (10 to 12 years is normal for 165-pound dogs). So since they don’t live very long, Ostrander speculates that:

“Whatever happened in the genome that allowed these dogs to survive in this very hostile environment is probably [mutações em] very big, important genes that do very important things.

Ultimately, we want to know what happened to the genomic DNA that allowed it to [os cães] live, reproduce and survive in a radioactive environment.”

By identifying the families, Mousseaus and Ostrander can identify and look for differences between the offspring and the parents. In this way, they can look for mutations or potential for mutations that might be passed down from generation to generation in dogs that survived the 1986 explosion.

Next steps

The next stages of studies with the Chernobyl dog population will analyze what has changed in the animals’ genetic makeup over the past 37 years.

The team has high hopes of answering questions that could help scientists better understand the risks associated with radiation exposure.

Some of these questions are: What needs to happen for the offspring to be born alive and grow? Are the genes that have undergone alterations the same ones we already know about the effects of radiation?

Questions remain: Are there changes in genes involved in DNA repair, metabolism, aging, or new responses that have allowed dogs to survive? At what levels does significant damage begin to appear?