A panel of veterinary and academic experts reviewed current available evidence on age at death for Labrador and reached a consensus that their average/typical lifespan was 12 years of age (Adams and others, 2016). A prospective cohort study that described the longevity of 39 pedigree adult neutered Labradors, showed that 89.7% lived to meet/exceed this typical lifespan. The study showed that maintenance of lean body mass and reduced accumulation of body fat were associated with attaining a longer than average lifespan whilst gender and age at neutering were not associated with longevity (Adams and others 2016)

Adams, Vicki J

Carmichael, Stuart

Ceccarelli, Kellie

Morgan, David M

Penell, Johanna

Watson, Penny

Apollo (Cambridge)

Vet RecoRD |  1Short communicationEvidence of longer life; a cohort of 39 labrador retrieversVicki J Adams,1 Kellie Ceccarelli,2 Penny Watson,3 Stuart Carmichael,4 Johanna Penell,5 David M Morgan6A panel of veterinary and academic experts reviewed current available evidence on age at death for labradors and reached a consensus that their average/typical life  span was 12 years of age.1 A prospective cohort study that described the longevity of 39 pedigree adult neutered labradors, showed that 89.7 per cent lived to meet/exceed this typical life  span. The study showed that maintenance of lean body mass and reduced accu-mulation of body fat were associated with attaining a longer than average life  span while sex and age at neutering were not associated with longevity.1 The present cohort was derived from 31 litters via 19 known (7 unknown) dams and 12 known (7 unknown) sires enrolled in a prospective longitudinal study at a median age of 6.5 years at the start of the study on July 16, 2004. The last dog died on September 09, 2015 at the age of 17.1 years and the oldest dog, a male, reached 17.9 years. The aim of this study was to compare the longevity of the present cohort fed to maintain a body condition score (BCS) between 2 and 4 on a 5-point scale to three historical comparison groups of pedigree labradors taken from previously published studies. The ‘oldest of the old’  labradors from the  present cohort could hold important clues on how to achieve healthy ageing. Further analysis of the cohort's clinical data is being undertaken with the objective to develop key strategies to increase the health span of dogs:1. 2004 UK Kennel Club (KC) survey dogs owned/kept by owners and breeders that died in the previous 10 years (1994–2003).22. 1987 US ‘Restricted’ group (n=24) fed 25 per cent less than a sex-matched and bodyweight-matched sibling pair to main-tain a mean BCS between 4 and 5 on a 9-point scale; 48 pup-pies from seven litters with seven dams and two sires ran-domly assigned to feeding group at six weeks of age, started on the study from eight weeks of age in 1987 and followed until death of all dogs in this pair-fed study.3–53. 1987 US ‘Control’ group (n=24) initially fed ad libitum and then fed a restricted amount of food to prevent excessive weight gain.Descriptive statistics are reported for age at death using median, minimum and maximum values. Median age at death was compared using Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance with post hoc Dunn’s pairwise comparisons. After excluding 32 KC survey dogs that died at <3.5 years of age, survival analysis was used to derive Kaplan-Meier product limit estimates of the survival functions with post hoc pairwise log rank tests and results are reported as median survival time (MST) with 95  per  cent confi-dence  intervals. The proportions of dogs surviving to 12 years and those alive at/beyond 15.6 years of age were compared using cross-tabulations with χ2 or Fisher's exact tests. Level of significance for multiple comparisons was set at P<0.008 using a Bonferroni correction as α/k where α/is 0.05 and k is the number of comparisons (six). A one-sample sign test was used to compare the median age at death of the longevity cohort to the average/typical life span of 12 years for labradors.The current cohort lived significantly longer than each of the historical comparison groups (P<0.0001). Surviv-al analysis revealed significant differences in MSTs with the  present cohort living longer than each of the other groups (P≤0.004, Table 1, Fig 1). Almost 90 per cent of the present cohort reached the average expected age of 12 years for labrador retrievers while only 30 per cent of the US ‘Control’ group achieved this (P<0.0001, Table 2). Additionally, 28  per  cent of the dogs in the  present co-hort reached/exceeded exceptional longevity, defined as being alive at/beyond 15.6 years of age6 and this was significantly greater than any of the historical compari-son groups (P<0.0001, Table 2). Furthermore, the median 10.1136/vr.104167Veterinary Record (2018) doi: 10.1136/vr.1041671Vet Epi, Abbey Farm Cottage, Ixworth, UK2Spectrum Brands, West Byfleet, UK3Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK4School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, Vet School Main Building (VSM), Guildford, UK5Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, SLU Institutionen for vatten och miljo, Uppsala, Sweden6Spectrum Brands Schweiz GmbH, Wangen-Brüttisellen, SwitzerlandE-mail for correspondence:   vjadams12@ gmail. comProvenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.Received October 20, 2016Revised January 3, 2018Accepted January 12, 2018group.bmj.com on March 16, 2018 - Published by http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/Downloaded from  | Vet RecoRD2age at death in the present cohort of 14.01 years was sig-nificantly greater than the average/typical life  span of 12 years for labrador  retrievers (P<0.0001). While age at neutering was not found to be linked to longevity in the present cohort, evaluation of the effect of age of neu-tering was not possible for the US dogs.5In spite of being 16 years and 17 years of age, the last five dogs in the present cohort continued to be full of life, active, social and highly engaged with their animal wel-fare specialists and social groups. This suggests that the dogs experienced an increase in health span and not only in the actual years lived.The dogs in the present cohort were more closely re-lated than the dogs in the UK KC study but less closely related than the dogs in the US sibling-matched study and this suggests that while genetics is important, it is unlikely to be the primary driver of longevity. The envi-ronmental conditions that the dogs in the present cohort experienced were similar to those of the dogs in the US study while the dogs in the KC study were dogs kept by owners belonging to a UK breed club. There are likely to be differences in the living conditions experienced by the different groups of dogs that may have affected longevity. However, the reduced variation and fewer changes over time in management factors of the present cohort provid-ed an opportunity to evaluate life span while controlling for the potential confounding impact of such variables.The results of this study showed that the present co-hort lived significantly longer than previously studied lab-radors and had a greater than expected proportion living well beyond that of the expected breed life span, despite the limitations of using historical comparison groups and the fact that all of these groups of dogs are inherently bi-ased. These 39 labradors experienced a combination of a high quality plane of nutrition with appropriate husband-ry and healthcare. Increased understanding and control of the ageing process provides an opportunity to estimate the impact of the longevity dividend. For human beings this is defined as the social, economic and health bonuses for both individuals and populations that accrue as a re-sults of medical interventions to slow the rate of ageing.7 The importance of the ‘oldest of the old’ dogs as reported here is that they can provide a model system for exploring the longevity dividend in human beings as well as dogs.8Competing interests VJA and JP received payment from Spectrum Brands (and formerly P&G) for provision of analytical services and interpretation of data. KC and DMM are employees of Spectrum Brands (and formerly of P&G).Open Access This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http:// creativecommons. org/ licenses/ by- nc/ 4. 0/© British Veterinary Association (unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.References	1	 ADAMS VJ, WAtSon P, CArMiChAel S, et al. exceptional longevity and potential deter-minants of successful ageing in a cohort of 39 labrador retrievers: results of a prospec-tive longitudinal study. Acta Vet Scand 2016;58:29.	2	 ADAMS VJ, eVAnS KM, SAMPSon J, et al. Methods and mortality results of a health survey of purebred dogs in the UK. J Small Anim Pract 2010;51:512–24.	3	 KeAly rD, lAWler DF, BAllAM JM, et al. effects of diet restriction on life span and age-related changes in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2002;220:1315–20.	4	 lAWler DF, eVAnS rh, lArSon Bt, et al. influence of lifetime food restriction on causes, time, and predictors of death in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2005;226:225–31.	5	 lAWler DF, lArSon Bt, BAllAM JM, et al. Diet restriction and ageing in the dog: major observations over two decades. Br J Nutr 2008;99:793–805.	6	 WAterS DJ, Kengeri SS, CleVer B, et al. exploring mechanisms of sex differences in longevity: lifetime ovary exposure and exceptional longevity in dogs. Aging Cell 2009;8:752–5.	7	 olShAnSKy SJ, Perry D, Miller rA, et al. in pursuit of the longevity dividend. Scientist 2006;20:28–36.	8	 CreeVy Ke, AUStAD Sn, hoFFMAn JM, et al. the Companion Dog as a Model for the longevity Dividend. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med 2016;6:a026633.0.00.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.91.0Survival Time (years)LongevityKC survey‘Restricted’‘Control’Cumulative Survival Probability6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20FIG 1: Kaplan-Meier survival curves showing that the longevity study group lived significantly longer than the historical comparison groups. KC, Kennel Club .TABLE	1	 Descriptive statistics for age at death of the four groups of dogs and results of survival analysisGroupDescriptive statistics Survival analysisN Median age* (Min-Max) N MST† (95% CI)longevity study 39 14.01a (9.68–17.90) 39 14.01a (13.18 to 14.77)KC survey 574 12.25b (0.17–19.00) 542 12.58b (12.17 to 12.92)‘restricted’ 24 12.95b (4.30–14.56) 24 12.90b (12.38 to 13.40)‘Control’ 24 11.16b (3.50–13.29) 24 11.14c (10.80 to 11.99)*Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance (P< 0.0001) with post hoc Dunn’s pairwise comparisons: median ages with different superscripts are significantly different from one another. †MSt; Kaplan-Meier log rank P<0.0001; MSts with different superscripts are significantly different from one another (P≤0.004).Ci, confidence interval; KC, Kennel Club; MSt, median survival time.TABLE	2	 Numbers and proportions of dogs achieving a typical life span (average expected age of 12 years) and an exceptional life span (age of≥15.6 years)GroupTotal dogsDogs reaching typical life spanDogs reaching exceptional life spanN n %* 95% CI n %† 95% CIlongevity study 39 35 89.7a 74.8 to 96.7 11 28.20a 15.6 to 45.1KC survey 574 302 52.61ab 48.4 to 56.8 24 4.18b 2.8 to 6.3‘restricted’ 24 17 70.83ab 48.8 to 86.6 0 0b nA‘Control’ 24 7 29.16b 13.4 to 51.3 0 0b nA*Proportions (%) with different superscripts are significantly different, P<0.0001.†Proportions (%) with different superscripts are significantly different, P<0.0001.Ci, confidence interval; KC, Kennel Club.group.bmj.com on March 16, 2018 - Published by http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/Downloaded from labrador retrieversEvidence of longer life; a cohort of 39Johanna Penell and David M MorganVicki J Adams, Kellie Ceccarelli, Penny Watson, Stuart Carmichael, published online February 26, 2018Veterinary Record http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/early/2018/03/01/vr.104167Updated information and services can be found at: These include:References ef-list-1http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/early/2018/03/01/vr.104167#rThis article cites 8 articles, 1 of which you can access for free at: Open Accesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/non-commercial. See: provided the original work is properly cited and the use isnon-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this workCommons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the CreativeserviceEmail alertingbox at the top right corner of the online article. Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up in theCollectionsTopic Articles on similar topics can be found in the following collections  (132)Open accessNoteshttp://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissionsTo request permissions go to:http://journals.bmj.com/cgi/reprintformTo order reprints go to:http://group.bmj.com/subscribe/To subscribe to BMJ go to:group.bmj.com on March 16, 2018 - Published by http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/Downloaded from 

Evidence of longer life; a cohort of 39 labrador retrievers.

A panel of veterinary and academic experts reviewed current available evidence on age at death for labradors and reached a consensus that their average/typical life  span was 12years of age.1  A prospective cohort study that described the longevity of 39 pedigree adult neutered labradors, showed that 89.7 per cent lived to meet/exceed this typical life  span. The study showed that maintenance of lean body mass and reduced accumulation of body fat were associated with attaining a longer than average life  span while sex and age at neutering were not associated with longevity

Adams, Vicki J.

Morgan, David M.

Epsilon Open Archive

Vet RecoRD |  1Short communicationEvidence of longer life; a cohort of 39 labrador retrieversVicki J Adams,1 Kellie Ceccarelli,2 Penny Watson,3 Stuart Carmichael,4 Johanna Penell,5 David M Morgan6A panel of veterinary and academic experts reviewed current available evidence on age at death for labradors and reached a consensus that their average/typical life  span was 12 years of age.1 A prospective cohort study that described the longevity of 39 pedigree adult neutered labradors, showed that 89.7 per cent lived to meet/exceed this typical life  span. The study showed that maintenance of lean body mass and reduced accu-mulation of body fat were associated with attaining a longer than average life  span while sex and age at neutering were not associated with longevity.1 The present cohort was derived from 31 litters via 19 known (7 unknown) dams and 12 known (7 unknown) sires enrolled in a prospective longitudinal study at a median age of 6.5 years at the start of the study on July 16, 2004. The last dog died on September 09, 2015 at the age of 17.1 years and the oldest dog, a male, reached 17.9 years. The aim of this study was to compare the longevity of the present cohort fed to maintain a body condition score (BCS) between 2 and 4 on a 5-point scale to three historical comparison groups of pedigree labradors taken from previously published studies. The ‘oldest of the old’  labradors from the  present cohort could hold important clues on how to achieve healthy ageing. Further analysis of the cohort's clinical data is being undertaken with the objective to develop key strategies to increase the health span of dogs:1. 2004 UK Kennel Club (KC) survey dogs owned/kept by owners and breeders that died in the previous 10 years (1994–2003).22. 1987 US ‘Restricted’ group (n=24) fed 25 per cent less than a sex-matched and bodyweight-matched sibling pair to main-tain a mean BCS between 4 and 5 on a 9-point scale; 48 pup-pies from seven litters with seven dams and two sires ran-domly assigned to feeding group at six weeks of age, started on the study from eight weeks of age in 1987 and followed until death of all dogs in this pair-fed study.3–53. 1987 US ‘Control’ group (n=24) initially fed ad libitum and then fed a restricted amount of food to prevent excessive weight gain.Descriptive statistics are reported for age at death using median, minimum and maximum values. Median age at death was compared using Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance with post hoc Dunn’s pairwise comparisons. After excluding 32 KC survey dogs that died at <3.5 years of age, survival analysis was used to derive Kaplan-Meier product limit estimates of the survival functions with post hoc pairwise log rank tests and results are reported as median survival time (MST) with 95  per  cent confi-dence  intervals. The proportions of dogs surviving to 12 years and those alive at/beyond 15.6 years of age were compared using cross-tabulations with χ2 or Fisher's exact tests. Level of significance for multiple comparisons was set at P<0.008 using a Bonferroni correction as α/k where α/is 0.05 and k is the number of comparisons (six). A one-sample sign test was used to compare the median age at death of the longevity cohort to the average/typical life span of 12 years for labradors.The current cohort lived significantly longer than each of the historical comparison groups (P<0.0001). Surviv-al analysis revealed significant differences in MSTs with the  present cohort living longer than each of the other groups (P≤0.004, Table 1, Fig 1). Almost 90 per cent of the present cohort reached the average expected age of 12 years for labrador retrievers while only 30 per cent of the US ‘Control’ group achieved this (P<0.0001, Table 2). Additionally, 28  per  cent of the dogs in the  present co-hort reached/exceeded exceptional longevity, defined as being alive at/beyond 15.6 years of age6 and this was significantly greater than any of the historical compari-son groups (P<0.0001, Table 2). Furthermore, the median 10.1136/vr.104167Veterinary Record (2018) doi: 10.1136/vr.1041671Vet Epi, Abbey Farm Cottage, Ixworth, UK2Spectrum Brands, West Byfleet, UK3Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK4School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, Vet School Main Building (VSM), Guildford, UK5Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, SLU Institutionen for vatten och miljo, Uppsala, Sweden6Spectrum Brands Schweiz GmbH, Wangen-Brüttisellen, SwitzerlandE-mail for correspondence:   vjadams12@ gmail. comProvenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.Received October 20, 2016Revised January 3, 2018Accepted January 12, 2018 | Vet RecoRD2age at death in the present cohort of 14.01 years was sig-nificantly greater than the average/typical life  span of 12 years for labrador  retrievers (P<0.0001). While age at neutering was not found to be linked to longevity in the present cohort, evaluation of the effect of age of neu-tering was not possible for the US dogs.5In spite of being 16 years and 17 years of age, the last five dogs in the present cohort continued to be full of life, active, social and highly engaged with their animal wel-fare specialists and social groups. This suggests that the dogs experienced an increase in health span and not only in the actual years lived.The dogs in the present cohort were more closely re-lated than the dogs in the UK KC study but less closely related than the dogs in the US sibling-matched study and this suggests that while genetics is important, it is unlikely to be the primary driver of longevity. The envi-ronmental conditions that the dogs in the present cohort experienced were similar to those of the dogs in the US study while the dogs in the KC study were dogs kept by owners belonging to a UK breed club. There are likely to be differences in the living conditions experienced by the different groups of dogs that may have affected longevity. However, the reduced variation and fewer changes over time in management factors of the present cohort provid-ed an opportunity to evaluate life span while controlling for the potential confounding impact of such variables.The results of this study showed that the present co-hort lived significantly longer than previously studied lab-radors and had a greater than expected proportion living well beyond that of the expected breed life span, despite the limitations of using historical comparison groups and the fact that all of these groups of dogs are inherently bi-ased. These 39 labradors experienced a combination of a high quality plane of nutrition with appropriate husband-ry and healthcare. Increased understanding and control of the ageing process provides an opportunity to estimate the impact of the longevity dividend. For human beings this is defined as the social, economic and health bonuses for both individuals and populations that accrue as a re-sults of medical interventions to slow the rate of ageing.7 The importance of the ‘oldest of the old’ dogs as reported here is that they can provide a model system for exploring the longevity dividend in human beings as well as dogs.8Competing interests VJA and JP received payment from Spectrum Brands (and formerly P&G) for provision of analytical services and interpretation of data. KC and DMM are employees of Spectrum Brands (and formerly of P&G).Open Access This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http:// creativecommons. org/ licenses/ by- nc/ 4. 0/© British Veterinary Association (unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.References	1	 ADAMS VJ, WAtSon P, CArMiChAel S, et al. exceptional longevity and potential deter-minants of successful ageing in a cohort of 39 labrador retrievers: results of a prospec-tive longitudinal study. Acta Vet Scand 2016;58:29.	2	 ADAMS VJ, eVAnS KM, SAMPSon J, et al. Methods and mortality results of a health survey of purebred dogs in the UK. J Small Anim Pract 2010;51:512–24.	3	 KeAly rD, lAWler DF, BAllAM JM, et al. effects of diet restriction on life span and age-related changes in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2002;220:1315–20.	4	 lAWler DF, eVAnS rh, lArSon Bt, et al. influence of lifetime food restriction on causes, time, and predictors of death in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2005;226:225–31.	5	 lAWler DF, lArSon Bt, BAllAM JM, et al. Diet restriction and ageing in the dog: major observations over two decades. Br J Nutr 2008;99:793–805.	6	 WAterS DJ, Kengeri SS, CleVer B, et al. exploring mechanisms of sex differences in longevity: lifetime ovary exposure and exceptional longevity in dogs. Aging Cell 2009;8:752–5.	7	 olShAnSKy SJ, Perry D, Miller rA, et al. in pursuit of the longevity dividend. Scientist 2006;20:28–36.	8	 CreeVy Ke, AUStAD Sn, hoFFMAn JM, et al. the Companion Dog as a Model for the longevity Dividend. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med 2016;6:a026633.0.00.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.91.0Survival Time (years)LongevityKC survey‘Restricted’‘Control’Cumulative Survival Probability6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20FIG 1: Kaplan-Meier survival curves showing that the longevity study group lived significantly longer than the historical comparison groups. KC, Kennel Club .TABLE	1	 Descriptive statistics for age at death of the four groups of dogs and results of survival analysisGroupDescriptive statistics Survival analysisN Median age* (Min-Max) N MST† (95% CI)longevity study 39 14.01a (9.68–17.90) 39 14.01a (13.18 to 14.77)KC survey 574 12.25b (0.17–19.00) 542 12.58b (12.17 to 12.92)‘restricted’ 24 12.95b (4.30–14.56) 24 12.90b (12.38 to 13.40)‘Control’ 24 11.16b (3.50–13.29) 24 11.14c (10.80 to 11.99)*Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance (P< 0.0001) with post hoc Dunn’s pairwise comparisons: median ages with different superscripts are significantly different from one another. †MSt; Kaplan-Meier log rank P<0.0001; MSts with different superscripts are significantly different from one another (P≤0.004).Ci, confidence interval; KC, Kennel Club; MSt, median survival time.TABLE	2	 Numbers and proportions of dogs achieving a typical life span (average expected age of 12 years) and an exceptional life span (age of≥15.6 years)GroupTotal dogsDogs reaching typical life spanDogs reaching exceptional life spanN n %* 95% CI n %† 95% CIlongevity study 39 35 89.7a 74.8 to 96.7 11 28.20a 15.6 to 45.1KC survey 574 302 52.61ab 48.4 to 56.8 24 4.18b 2.8 to 6.3‘restricted’ 24 17 70.83ab 48.8 to 86.6 0 0b nA‘Control’ 24 7 29.16b 13.4 to 51.3 0 0b nA*Proportions (%) with different superscripts are significantly different, P<0.0001.†Proportions (%) with different superscripts are significantly different, P<0.0001.Ci, confidence interval; KC, Kennel Club.

Evidence of longer life; a cohort of 39 labrador retrievers

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Evidence of longer life; a cohort of 39 labrador retrievers.

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