DATE: Friday, July 18, 1997                 TAG: 9707180567

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE 

DATELINE: AUBURN, ALA.                      LENGTH:   53 lines

GULF WAR DOGS MAY HOLD CLUES TO A MYSTERY

Thousands of Gulf War veterans have suffered a variety of illnesses that researchers group under the name Gulf War Syndrome.

To the untrained eye, the bits of reddish-brown flesh on Kyle Braund's lab table look like something the butcher might throw out.

But to Braund, a professor at Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine, the sinewy scraps of dog muscle and nerve fiber could be keys to learning what has caused thousands of Gulf War veterans to fall ill.

``We're hoping this research will solve part of the mystery surrounding Gulf War Syndrome,'' said Braund, a specialist in animal muscle and nerve diseases.

About 118 military working dogs - mostly German and Belgian shepherds - saw duty in the Persian Gulf during the war, performing base perimeter patrols, crowd control and searching for explosives.

They breathed the same air, drank the same water, and, sometimes, ate the same food as the troops in the region.

``They were exposed to everything the soldiers were,'' Braund said. ``The prime goal of the study is to see if these dogs have problems similar to the problems experienced by the soldiers.''

The study, which began in March and is expected to be completed by December 1998, is funded by the Department of Defense. About once a week, military officials at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, ship Braund nerve and muscle samples from newly euthanized dogs.

``During the war, most of the dogs were about 7 or 8 years old, so now it's six or seven years later, many of them are reaching the end of their normal life span,'' Braund said.

Irene Witt, a spokeswoman at Lackland, said the dogs are not prematurely euthanized for the study.

Braund has analyzed tissue samples from about 40 dogs so far, and has already seen some signs of nerve damage, although he says it would be inappropriate to draw any conclusions this early in the study.

Several factors could account for nerve damage, he says, including age and nerve diseases common to older German and Belgian shepherds.

Some leaders of Gulf War veteran groups worry that the military might suppress or manipulate the study results.

``It's not necessarily in the Pentagon's best interest to find out what happened, or to let the public know what happened,'' said Paul Sullivan, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based National Gulf War Resource Center. ``They don't have a very reliable track record; it took the Pentagon more than five years to admit they lied about the presence of chemical weapons in the Gulf War.''

Braund said there is no safeguard to ensure that the Defense Department doesn't manipulate or suppress his data, but he's hopeful the department will ``do the honorable thing.''

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