Here are some pictures of the latest tick maps from PetsAndTicks.com.
As expected, tick reports are down this time of year, but they’re likely to increase a lot in September as we see the next big wave of ticks come out looking for food.
Anti-vaccination and a fatal disease from horses
Being an equine vet in some parts of Australia (namely Queensland) is scary… to the point that people are leaving equine practice or refusing to treat certain cases. That’s because of Hendra virus, a bat-associated virus that infects horses and which can spill over into people. It hasn’t infected many people, but it is
Bird bugs, horse abortions and sick vet students
When 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
Tick identification: Canada
As 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
PetsAndTicks.com
After 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
Updated US rabies map
Here 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.
US rabies map: 2017
We 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
Fossil fuels and antibiotics: An analogy
The 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
CANresist
Introducing 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
West Nile Virus in Ontario horses
Two 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