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A recent study has proven that men’s beards carry more germs than dogs do in their fur.
The researchers found a significantly higher bacterial load in specimens taken from men’s beards compared with the dogs’ fur,’ Professor Andreas Gutzeit, of Switzerland’s Hirslanden Clinic, was quoted as saying.
According to Daily Mail, the study actually intended to understand whether humans could contract dog-borne diseases from a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner shared by veterinarians. The researchers looked at the levels of bacteria lurking in the facial hair of 18 men and 30 dogs from different breeds.
They found that all of the bearded men, who were aged 18 to 76, had high microbial counts, while only 23 of the 30 dogs showed similarly high microbial presence.
Seven of the men tested positive for microbes that actually posed a threat to human health.
When the MRI scanners were disinfected, researchers found higher levels of bugs after the men had used it.
“On the basis of these findings, dogs can be considered as clean compared with bearded men,” says Gutzeit.