A new study suggests a man’s beard contains more germs than a dog’s fur.
Professors with Switzerland’s Hirslanden Clinic took swab samples from the whiskers of 18 men and compared them with samples from the necks of 30 dogs of varying breeds.
They found all of the bearded men, aged from 18 to 76, showed high microbial counts, but only 23 out of 30 dogs had high counts, the Daily Mail reports.
Seven of the men sampled were found to be harboring in their beards microbes that posed a threat to human health.
Professor Andreas Gutzeit of the Hirslanden Clinic told the Daily Mail, “On the basis of these findings, dogs can be considered as clean compared with bearded men.”
The study was conducted by scientists wanting to learn whether there is a risk that humans might pick up a dog-borne disease from an MRI scanner that was also used by veterinarians for exams.
