certain , detent are often said to be man ’s best friend , and at times they evenlook like us . But it turns out that they have another rather surprising similarity – their poop .

A study in the journalMicrobiome , track by Dr Luis Pedro Coelho from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory , see that the gutmicrobiomesof firedog and humans actually have middling similar gene .

“ We found many similarities between the factor message of the human and frank catgut microbiomes , ” Dr Coelho say in astatement . “ The result of this comparison suggest that we are more similar to man ’s full friend than we originally thought . ”

In the study , the researchers evaluate the catgut microbiome of two strain of detent , beagles and retrievers . Sixty - four dogs were used in the work , which were all fed the same diet of commercially uncommitted dog food for four week .

The researchers then , well , collected the poop of the dogs – there were 129 turd samples in sum – after four and eight weeks . They then extracted DNA from the samples to create a catalog of the dog catgut microbiome , contain more than a million cistron .

compare that to existing catalogs for humans , mouse , and pigs ( they did n’t have to handle their dirt , fortunately ) , they line up that the hot dog ’s gene capacity was more similar to that of a human than pigs or computer mouse were .

" These findings suggest that heel could be a better model for aliment studies than pigs or mice and we could potentially use data from dogs to study the impact of dieting on gut microbiota in humanity , and humans could be a proficient model to contemplate the sustenance of click , ” Dr Coelho tell .

Speaking toPopular Science , he take note that the frank microbiome has some of the same species of bacteria as man but different strains . So much so that their “ enteric flora could be first cousin , ” the site noted .

The researchers also found that the dieting of humans and dogs , specifically the amount of protein and carbohydrates , had a standardised effect on the microbiota of both . For object lesson , rotund dogs ( one-half in the sketch were heavy ) were more antiphonal to a high protein diet than lean dogs . sound microbiomes changed less , which is what you want , suggesting they are more resilient .

So remember , dogs can besneaky little devils . But we ’re more similar than you consider , in a rather surprising way .