I got a question about an old post on this topic, so I decided to add a bit of information and re-post it. Not much has changed since it was written in 2018, apart from more reports of people and pets getting sick from raw pet food and raw treats.
COVID-19 in Gorillas, Toxoplasma in People
I usually link blog posts to Tweets, rather than re-hash my Twitter musings (weese_scott) on the blog, but two things I posted on Twitter today may be of interest here.
COVID-19 in captive gorillas
Not surprisingly, COVID-19 has been identified in captive gorillas, in this case at the San Diego zoo. It’s suspected that
Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Surveillance Map (December 31)
We continue to track cases of canine infectious respiratory disease in various parts of Canada, for what it’s worth. The data are obviously a bit dodgy because it’s primarily from self-reporting, but I think we’re getting some interesting information. Cases seem to be slowing down, but we continue to get reports from the two main
New SARS-CoV-2 Variant: Animal Considerations
The new SARS-CoV-2 strain circulating in the UK (technically called SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01, or B.1.1.7 – see “what’s in a name” below) has raised a lot of concern internationally. The fact that we have a mutant strain of the virus isn’t surprising. There are countless mutant strains out there already. Viruses like this naturally change
Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Surveillance Map (December 17)
We’re continuing to track informal reports of canine infectious respiratory disease in a number of areas. Click here for the latest version of our canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC) map (December 17).
We’re still getting lots of reports of sick dogs in Edmonton and Calgary, both via cases reported through our survey for the
SARS-CoV-2 in “Wild” Mink
There are various reasons we’re paying attention to SARS-CoV-2 in domestic animals. One important one is the potential for transmission of the virus from domestic animals to wildlife (because animals tend to have more direct contact with wildlife than people do). More specifically, we’re concerned about transmission to wildlife and then persistence of the virus
Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Surveillance Map (December 11)
A few days ago, I wrote about our efforts to track infectious respiratory disease in dogs, based on informal reports of potentially increased disease activity in a couple of areas (particularly Calgary AB and Guelph ON). Click here for the latest version of our canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC) map.
As expected, once
International Canine Infectious Disease Map
A few times a week, I get questions like this from veterinarians:
- I have a canine patient from [name your country] and it’s sick. What diseases should I be aware of?
- I have healthy canine patient that was just imported from [name your country]. What diseases should I be aware of?
Or I get
COVID-19 on a Mink Farm, Canada
Not surprisingly, COVID-19 has been identified on a mink farm in British Columbia, Canada, in the midst of Canada’s 2nd wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s important note that so far, the virus has only been found in people on the farm, not in the mink. Eight farm workers were reportedly diagnosed with COVID-19 over
Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Outbreak Tracking
Not uncommonly, I get questions about outbreaks of “kennel cough” (more formally known as canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC)). It’s not uncommon for us to see little outbreaks of this kind of respiratory illness in dogs, and we don’t have a good handle on the amount of “background” disease that’s always present in the