Pets, livestock and wildlife proposed as sentinels for tracking emerging contaminants

Domestic and wild animals could serve as early-warning sentinels for emerging contaminants in the environment, according to a critical narrative review published in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

The review, which used structured keyword selection and literature mapping informed by SANRA quality criteria, integrates evidence on three groups of sentinel animals. Companion animals, sharing homes and lifestyles with people, can help reconstruct indoor and lifestyle exposures. Livestock occupy the interface between feed, water, soil and animal-derived foods, and can therefore flag contamination entering the food chain. Wildlife, meanwhile, integrates exposure at ecosystem, trophic and landscape scales. The contaminants covered include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), endocrine disruptors, micro- and nanoplastics, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and food-chain contaminants.

The proposed framework outlines monitoring modules, normalization considerations, biospecimen-banking options and tiered operational triggers that connect a sentinel detection to environmental verification and targeted human biomonitoring. Two application models illustrate the approach: a hypothetical localized PFAS plume involving waterfowl and dairy cattle, and an evidence-informed Arctic sled dog model for chronic exposure to long-range transported chemical mixtures. In both scenarios, animal signals are used to support exposure reconstruction, hotspot identification and public-health prioritization rather than to replace direct measurement in people.

The authors are explicit about the limits of the approach. Animal sentinel evidence should be interpreted as early warning and triangulating evidence, not as stand-alone proof of human health risk, the review states. Because the article is a framework and narrative review rather than a new field study, it does not report new measured contaminant concentrations; its contribution lies in organizing existing evidence into an operational structure that environmental and public-health agencies could adapt. The full framework, including the tiered triggers and biospecimen-banking options, is described in the article, which appears in volume 198 of the journal.

Subject of Research: Use of domestic and wild animals as sentinels for monitoring emerging environmental contaminants and assessing human exposure

Article Title: Domestic and wild animals as sentinels for environmental monitoring of emerging contaminants: a One Health framework for biomonitoring and human exposure assessment

Article References: Britti, D. (2026). Domestic and wild animals as sentinels for environmental monitoring of emerging contaminants: a One Health framework for biomonitoring and human exposure assessment. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 198(11), Article 1258. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-026-16026-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s10661-026-16026-1

Keywords: emerging contaminants, PFAS, One Health, biomonitoring, sentinel animals, wildlife, livestock, companion animals, microplastics, endocrine disruptors, environmental monitoring, public health