As a journal Associate Editor and reviewer, I see lots of manuscripts about “new” viruses. I tend not to get too excited about most of them, because “new” is usually actually just “new to us” (or newly identified), because as technology improves, we are able to identify lots of viruses that we’ve been living with
Canine Influenza: California
After a couple of years of very little apparent canine influenza activity in the US, the virus seems to have come back with a vengeance in some parts of California. Canine H3N2 influenza came to North America from Asia in approximately 2015 and caused outbreaks in many areas, but then seemed to slip into
Update: COVID-19 in Animals Review Part 2: Dogs
There’s not as much to update about SARS-CoV-2 in dogs as there was in cats. We have more numbers than we did before, but the overall issues in dogs and our understanding of them haven’t really changed.
Spoiler alert: dogs and owners can both relax, as the risks are very limited.
Are dogs susceptible
Respiratory Disease Outbreaks In Dogs
For the past year or more, we’ve been trying to track infectious upper respiratory tract disease (officially known as “canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC)” but more commonly called “kennel cough”). It’s a tough thing to do since testing is limited, the disease is always present to some degree in the dog population, and there’s
Canine Rabies Imported Into Canada From Iran
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has reported the identification of a rabid dog imported into Ontario from Iran. The dog was imported on July 1, 2021 and started showing signs of rabies on July 11. It was euthanized the next day and subsequently diagnosed with rabies caused by a canine rabies virus variant
Update: Canine Flu in California (August 14)
A few days ago, I wrote about a potential H1N1 influenza outbreak in dogs in California. As I mentioned, H1N1 influenza causing an outbreak in dogs would be noteworthy because it’s not a known canine flu strain, and an outbreak would be unexpected given how rare it is to have human-to-dog transmission of human
US Dog Import Restrictions for African Swine Fever
African Swine Fever (ASF) is a devastating viral disease of swine that isn’t currently present in the US or Canada. Although the ASF virus only infects pigs, it is quite hardy and can be tracked around by humans, other animals and contaminated clothing, equipment, animal feed and uncooked pork products (like sausages). It can also
H1N1 Influenza in Dogs: California?
I’ve had a couple of reports today about an apparent H1N1 influenza outbreak in dogs in the US. Note that I said influenza in dogs, not canine influenza – there’s a reason for that, explained below…
The situation revolves around a respiratory disease outbreak in a dog kennel in California, and PCR testing of
Bordetella bronchiseptica (Kennel Cough) Vaccination in Dogs: Human Health Risk?
A recent paper in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics entitled “A doggy tale: Risk of zoonotic infection with Bordetella bronchiseptica for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients from live licensed bacterial veterinary vaccines for dogs and cats” (Moore et al. 2021) discusses (as the title suggests) human health risks from commonly-used
Pets and Evacuation Planning
I remember being in a meeting years ago and hearing an estimate of the number of deaths of people from Hurricane Katrina that were linked to them staying behind because they could not evacuate their pets. People chose to ride out a devastating hurricane rather than abandon their animals – animals that weren’t part of