Database Description

The Canary Database is a compilation of curated peer-reviewed research articles related to the use of animals as sentinels of human health hazards. This database contains information added by trained curators in addition to bibliographic records from MEDLINE and other well-known databases.

The database includes studies of wildlife, companion, and livestock animals, where either the exposure or the health effect could be considered potentially relevant to human health.

What Curators Add

For each study, curators add information about animal species, exposures, health effects, location, and whether the study includes data providing evidence linking animal sentinel events to human health risk in the following ways:

• Exposure-effect relationships in the animal
• Shared exposures between human and non-human animals
• Interspecies susceptibility
• Linkage between animal and human health outcomes
• Gene sequence information

Suggested Uses

Use the Canary Database to:

• Find out whether a cause and effect relationship between an environmental hazard and a health outcome has been studied in animal populations
• Find out what is known about a particular disease reservoir for an infectious agent
• Find out how investigators have used different study methodologies
• Identify knowledge gaps related to animal sentinel health events