From Canaries to Cats: Domestic Animals as Sentinels for Human Exposure Effects
Equine veterinarian Kathleen Mullen has fielded her fair share of strange calls. So when she received a question about some foals in Pennsylvania that were having difficulties swallowing, it seemed all part of a day’s work. Issues with swallowing—known as dysphagia—affect about 1 in 100 foals, but on this farm 5 of 10 foals were affected. She first thought the problem might be genetic, but close relatives of the affected horses living east, in New York, had shown no signs of dysphagia. So Mullen began looking for an environmental cause.
As she dug into the issue, Mullen learned that drinking water for the Pennsylvania farm was drawn from wells approximately from a hydraulic fracturing (fracking) well, whereas there was no drilling activity near the New York farm.