It’s that time of year. No, not for snow (although it is snowing here at the moment). It’s time for the annual US rabies surveillance report in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (Dyer et al. Rabies surveillance in the United States during 2013).
The highlights…
Today, guidance documents coordinated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Veterinary Medical Association were released. CDC descriptions of the two documents are below. Click on the title to get the document.
Interim Guidance for Public Health Officials on Pets of Ebola Virus Disease Contacts
This document provides interim guidance
The latest Worms & Germs infosheet, all about Lyme disease and ticks, is now available on the Resources – Pets page. Although it’s getting colder and occasionally snowy up in Ontario, there are lots of parts of North America where ticks are active all year round. It’s particularly important for any "snowbirds" who may
In some ways, I get it. However, the rest of me just wants to bang my head against the wall.
The short story: a blind dog was imported from Iran. Upon arrival, it was found to have (probably among other things) leishmaniasis, a concerning parasitic disease that we’re seeing occasionally in imported dogs. Leishmaniasis is
Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection that’s been described as a re-emerging problem in dogs in North America. (It’s been described as that for many years now so maybe we should drop the "re-emerging" and just say it’s a problem). The causative agent, Leptospira interogans, is a widespread bug that’s carried by a variety of
Spanish authorities have issued a statement through ProMED-mail about their decision to euthanize the dog owned by a nursing assistant with Ebola virus disease.
Regarding the news [that] appeared in the magazine "Veterinary Record", dated 18 Oct 2014, where it was questioning the scientific reasons on which euthanasia of the dog Excalibur were based, we
A Brockton, MA dog was euthanized after being bitten by a rabid skunk, because of a combination of the skunk’s rabies diagnosis, a relatively minor lapse in the dog’s vaccinations, and regulatory inflexibility. The ten-year-old Schnauzer cross was bitten in its own yard, and the skunk was subsequently caught, tested and diagnosed as rabid.
OK…time to get back to work writing. A couple weeks of conference organizing and uncountable Ebola calls are hopefully winding down, so back to the neglected blog.
This bug is an obscure one that I write about regularly: Capnocytophaga canimorus. It’s found in the mouth of most dogs, so people are commonly exposed to
Since I’ve spent most of my day answering questions about Ebola, here are some of the common Q&As.
Can dogs be infected with Ebola?
Yes, but what that really means is unclear. Most of the available information comes from a study in Gabon where they tested dogs in a community during an Ebola outbreak. They
There’s prudence and then there’s "let’s kill it so we don’t have to think about it."
The Spanish response to Ebola in a nursing assistant is a demonstration of the latter. Health Officials in Spain have obtained a court order to "euthanize and incinerate" the dog owned by a nursing assistant who was
