Often there are times when your dog suffers from diseases. As their parent,  we try to keep them protected from all diseases but the sad part is that when they cannot express their problem. There are many diseases which you might be not knowing about your dog. One of the disease cancer is quite common in humans but according to the recent study, cancer is also found in dogs too. You might find it shocking that cancer has been originated from dogs only.

This type of cancer is the oldest cancer known by humans and might have originated in Asia or Europe around 6,000 years ago. The cells of this are the same as the first dog that had it and not the carrier dog. The only differences that have come about naturally in the cells or changes that have taken place in the cells’ DNA due to carcinogens. This cancer usually occurs in both male and female dogs in their genitals.

According to the study of a researcher Andrian Baez Ortega, this kind of tumor is being spread now in almost all the continents. Andrian has collected cancer from 546 dogs from all over the world to conduct this study. With these samples, they have made a phylogenetic tree(tree that shows the descent or relationship of species).

With this study, they came to know that cancer is extremely old and first came up in 4,000 to 8,500 years ago in Asia or Europe. Cancer then spread from Europe to America when people arrived there for living. From there the virus spread in the European Colonies and then all over the world.

The interesting part here is how this cancer evolves. There are two main types of evolutions- positive and negative evolution. Positive selection is when the mutation that provides an orgasmic with a particular advantage is passed down to the next generations. Negative selection is where mutations that are likely to have a negative effect are less likely to be passed on. Such selection tends to occur through sexual reproduction.

There is no positive or negative selection in these tumors. It means that the cancer is collecting the damaging mutations slowly and gradually and hence it will not fit into the dog’s body.