Aging, Frailty, and Longevity in Companion Dogs and Cats
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Veterinary Clinical Studies".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 November 2026 | Viewed by 330
Special Issue Editor
2. Center for Exceptional Longevity Studies, Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Interests: aging–cancer connection; comparative aspects of biogerontology; sex differences in biology and medicine; U-shaped dose responses and health promotion; pet dogs as a model for human healthspan; personalized cancer prevention; cancer resistance in extreme longevity; duration of lifetime gonad exposure, disease resistance, and longevity
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Aging, frailty, and longevity in companion animals encompass a subject matter that has garnered considerable interest among pet owners and veterinary health professionals and within the biomedical research community. However, substantial gaps persist in our fundamental understanding, pointing to the need to obtain and disseminate novel results through investigations across many disciplines.
To address this need, this Special Issue will showcase original research articles that provide useful descriptions to advance our understanding of the aging process, frailty and specific age-related phenotypes, and factors that impact longevity in companion dogs and cats.
We invite submissions focusing on, but not limited to, the following:
Studies on environmental or host factors that aggravate or ameliorate aging, frailty, specific age-related phenotypes (e.g., hearing impairment, stamina, cognitive dysfunction), or age-related diseases;
Frailty studies utilizing measures of physical frailty (frailty index, frailty phenotype) as study endpoints or predictors of adverse health outcomes, including mortality;
Descriptions of potential biomarkers of aging that may serve as predictors of mortality or other adverse health consequences;
Evaluations of potential anti-aging drugs or non-drug approaches intended to extend longevity;
Investigations using observational cohorts, cross-sectional data, or data from interventional studies;
Studies reporting the results of breed-specific approaches or inter-breed comparisons;
Studies utilizing special cohorts focusing on exceptional longevity or diminished longevity;
Studies utilizing a life course approach, i.e., evaluating the impact of early life events on disease resistance or disease susceptibility later in life;
Studies utilizing a whole-organism approach to uncover trade-offs, for example, factors that may be beneficial early in life but detrimental later in life.
We invite you and your collaborators to highlight your recent findings by contributing an original research article to this Special Issue.
Dr. David J. Waters
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- companion dogs
- cats
- canine longevity
- feline longevity
- aging
- ageing
- frailty
- anti-aging interventions
- biomarkers
- healthy aging
- health span
- life course perspective
- senescence
- trade-offs
- multimorbidity
- breed differences
- sex differences
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