By Scott Weese on Posted in Birds,HorsesWhen I talk about infection control (or infectious diseases, in general), I emphasize the need to avoid tunnel vision. Sometimes, we run into situations where someone says “that animal tested negative for [name your bug], so we don’t have anything to worry about.” Well, no. It means you (probably) don’t have to worry about that… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,HorsesAs part of our recently launched PetsAndTick.com information and tick-tracker website, we are offering a pilot tick identification program. We will be offering identification of ticks that are removed from animals (non-human animals, to be specific). The program will complement our tick-tracking efforts and help gather more information about expanding tick ranges and incursions of… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,Horses,Other animalsAfter a particularly miserable spring here (to put it mildly), it’s finally warming up, and the snow’s almost gone. That’s the good news. The bad news is that ticks are also going to start coming out and looking for food – that means looking for animals (including us). I assume there will be lots of… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,Horses,RabiesHere are updated versions of the US rabies maps from yesterday’s post, with the addition of some more data. Pennsylvania’s looking more biohazardous now but that’s because we got a lot more data for that state. If we get more data from other areas, the maps will be updated accordingly.… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,Horses,Rabies,VaccinationWe track a few different diseases, both for research and for general education, including rabies. The maps below provide an overview of rabies in dogs, cats and horses in the US in 2017. It’s not a complete representation of cases, since we don’t have access to everyone’s surveillance data. It’s compiled through monitoring various reports… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Animals,Birds,Cats,Dogs,Horses,Other animals,Other diseases,Pocket petsThe post below is reproduced from CANresist.blog. It applies equally for veterinary medicine. I think most people buy into the concept of fossil fuels being finite resources. Someday, they’ll run out or logistics and cost of extraction will make them impractical. Accordingly, we’re thinking about ways to reduce and improve use (to delay the end of the… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Birds,Cats,Dogs,Horses,Other animalsIntroducing CANresist, a new initiative aimed at fostering antibiotic stewardship in Canada across the human and animal health fields and beyond, in order to maintain the effectiveness of these life-saving drugs. Follow us at CANresist.com or CANresist.blog, or on Facebook. Also check out our Twitter feed @CANADAresist, including our #mylastantibiotic tag to talk about the last time… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in HorsesTwo Ontario horses have recently been diagnosed with West Nile virus infection, prompting the equine health advisory below from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs. That’s not too surprising, as now is the typical time of year that we start seeing this mosquito-borne infection in Ontario. West Nile numbers in both humans and… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Horses,Other diseasesI’ve had this paper from One Health (Chan et al 2017) on my “to blog” pile for a while, since it’s an interesting story. Like any case report, it’s a bit of an oddball infection, and not likely indicative of a major or new risk. However, there are often a few good general take-home messages from… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,Horses,Other animalsIt’s commonly been stated that it’s important to finish your course of antibiotics (whether “your” refers to a person or animal), as a means of reducing the risk of developing antibiotic resistance. That’s never made much sense to me, since more antibiotic exposure is more likely to lead to a risk of resistance emerging. However,… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Dogs,Horses,Other diseases,ParasitesGuest Blog by Dr. Michelle Evason DVM DipACVIM, and current PhD student researching Lyme disease in dogs Recently, an interesting article on pet ownership and human tick risk was published (Jones et al, Zoonoses and Public Health 2017). The study looked at risk factors for “tick encounters” in people living in Lyme disease endemic states in the… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Horses,Rabies,VaccinationIf a horse comes into the hospital at this time of year and has some difficulty standing, incoordination and mild fever, the first thing on my list of likely causes is probably equine herpesvirus type I (EHV-1) infection. Next would be West Nile virus encephalitis. However, we consider all sudden onset neurological disease cases in… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Dogs,HorsesGuest blog by Dr. Michelle Evason, DVM DipACVIM (as well as current PhD student and coordinator of our Lifetime Lyme Study) In 2014, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) initiated a 3-year marketing campaign (news, advertisements, social media, collaboration with Parks Canada to post signage, etc.) to try to raise the general public’s awareness and… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,HorsesTo continue the map-posting binge that I’ve been on lately, Public Health Ontario has just posted their updated Lyme Disease Risk Areas map for 2017. For comparison, you can still also access the 2016 map too, and you can see that the risk areas have indeed expanded somewhat, particularly in Eastern Ontario. The estimated risk… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,HorsesOur online Pet Tick Tracker continues to receive lots of submissions, so here are some interesting maps showing some of the preliminary information compiled so far. The maps show where the ticks are being reported, but remember that they’re not necessarily reflective of the true overall picture, since it depends on who is reporting and who isn’t reporting.… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,HorsesOver the years, we’ve tried a variety of new approaches to promote awareness (among the public, veterinarians and others) and to collect relevant research information. Some (like this blog) have taken on a life of their own and exceeded our expectations. Some didn’t go very far. Our most recent initiative is the PetTickTracker, a website designed… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,HorsesIt’s pretty clear that tick ranges are changing. In Ontario, we’ve seen movement of ticks into areas where they were never seen before, as well as potential changes in the types of ticks that are found in different areas. The potential for tickborne diseases like Lyme disease highlights the importance of understanding tick distributions. Knowing where… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in HorsesThe bacterium Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus (often simply called Streptococcus zooepidemicus) is one that I think I understand less and less, including the risks this predominantly equine-associated bug poses to humans. It’s a well-known and common bacterium in horses, both healthy and sick, and can also be found in dogs and cats (where it can… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,Horses,Other animals,Rabies,VaccinationThe 2016 Compendium of Animal Rabies Prevention and Control has been released by the US’s National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians (NASPHV). This version has updates in a few different areas, such as some changes to recommendations for dogs, cats and ferrets that have potentially been exposed to rabies. It can be downloaded directly here or be found… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in HorsesThe title says it all. Here are the most recent maps from WormsAndGermsMap showing equine cases of West Nile virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) virus infection. As with any surveillance, the maps only capture a percentage of the true number of cases, but looking at the geographic distribution and trends in date-of-onset can still be informative. West… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Horses,Other diseasesArboviruses (ARthropod-BOrne viruses) are viruses that are spread by insects, often mosquitoes. As I’ve written about recently, mosquito biology and differences in reservoir species mean that mosquito-borne viruses can have quite different patterns of distribution and spread. As is common, the occurrence of West Nile virus infection in horses tends to ramp up in late… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in HorsesA recent report in MMWR describes a pair of Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus infections in people. The cases are noteworthy because this bacterium doesn’t often cause human infections, and because one of the infected people died. More commonly referred to simply as Strep zoo, this bacterium is very commonly found in perfectly healthy horses, although… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Horses,Other diseases,Vaccination‘Tis the season for mosquitoes, so ‘tis the season for some nasty vector-borne diseases. Few are worse that Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE), a viral infection that causes typically fatal disease in horses, and less commonly other species, including people. Cases tend to start mid-summer and peak late summer to fall, depending on the mosquito dynamics… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in HorsesInfection control isn’t rocket science. Wash your hands, don’t eat that, keep your finger out of your nose… things you learned in kindergarten go a long way to preventing infections. The basic nature of the core infection control concepts is also a barrier – hand washing isn’t fancy, new or associated with some fancy machine. (There… Continue Reading
