[ti:Can the Survivor Dogs of Chernobyl Teach Humans New Tricks?]
[al:Science & Technology]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2023-03-13]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]More than 35 years after the world's worst nuclear accident, the dogs of Chernobyl, Ukraine, live among empty buildings in and around the closed nuclear center.
[00:16.24]The animals continue to find food, mate and survive.
[00:22.49]Scientists hope that studying the dogs can teach humans about new ways to live in severely difficult, unforgiving environments.
[00:35.65]The researchers published a genetics study recently in the magazine Science Advances.
[00:43.17]It centers on 302 dogs living in a government identified "exclusion zone" around the area of the disaster. 
[00:55.18]The area has dangerously high levels of radiation.
[01:01.01]The scientists identified dog populations that received different levels of radiation.
[01:09.82]The research found genetic differences among the dog groups that make them different from one another and other dogs in other parts of the world.
[01:22.50]Genetics expert Elaine Ostrander with the National Human Genome Research Institute is one of the study investigators.
[01:33.43]She said the scientists had a great chance to examine a situation that could help answer an important question: "How do you survive in a hostile environment like this for 15 generations?"
[01:53.78]Tim Mousseau is a professor of biological sciences at the University of South Carolina and a member of the study team. 
[02:06.48]He said the dogs "provide an incredible tool to look at the impacts of this kind of a setting" on mammals.
[02:17.44]Chernobyl's environment is fierce. 
[02:21.25]On April 26, 1986, an explosion and fire at the Ukraine power plant released huge amounts of radioactivity into the atmosphere.
[02:36.68]Thirty workers were killed immediately. 
[02:39.75]Later deaths from radiation poisoning are estimated to be in the thousands.
[02:47.47]Researchers said most of the dogs they are studying appear to have ancestral ties to family dogs left behind when their owners fled the danger.
[03:01.67]Mousseau has been working in the Chernobyl area since the late 1990s. 
[03:08.66]He began collecting blood from the dogs around 2017.
[03:15.37]Some of the dogs live in the power plant. 
[03:19.44]Others are about 15 kilometers or 45 kilometers away.
[03:25.98]At first, Ostrander said, the team thought the dogs might have mated so closely over time that they would be much the same.
[03:38.15]But the testing of their genes showed that the dogs lived in areas of different radiation levels - low, middle and high.
[03:50.01]It was a major finding. Ostrander said the scientists could identify families" of about 15 different dog groups.
[04:02.68]Now researchers can begin to look for changes in genetic structures among the groups.
[04:10.99]"We can compare them and we can say: OK, what's different, what's changed, what's mutated, what's evolved, what helps you, what hurts you at the DNA level?" Ostrander said.
[04:28.17]Scientists said the research could have wide uses. 
[04:32.57]It could show how animals and humans can live now and in the future in areas under "continuous environmental" attack and in the high-radiation environment of space.
[04:50.52]Kari Ekenstedt is an animal doctor and professor at Purdue University in Indiana who was not involved in the study. 
[05:03.77]She said the study is a first step toward answering important questions about how higher level radiation affects large mammals.
[05:16.27]For example, she said, "Is it going to be changing their genomes at a rapid rate?"
[05:23.93]Scientists have already started on additional research. 
[05:29.10]It will require more time with the dogs in the area about 100 kilometers from Kyiv.
[05:37.98]Mousseau said he and his teammates were there most recently last October and did not see any war activity.
[05:49.74]Mousseau said the team has grown close to some dogs
[05:55.42]"Even though they're wild, they still very much enjoy human interaction," he said, "Especially when there's food involved."
[06:07.23]I'm Caty Weaver.