As someone who has had Giardia (including one episode that put me in the hospital when I was in vet school), I know how bad it can be. However, my concern about the human health risks from dogs with Giardia has been pretty low. Giardia comes in several different “assemblages” (types) and these types like
Giardia in dogs
The parasite Giardia often raises concern for both dog and human health. In reality, while it’s a potential problem, it’s probably over-rated (or at least there’s a bit too much paranoia at times). A reasonabe percentage of healthy dogs (probably ~7% in Ontario) are shedding the parasite at any given time, but very few will
Shelter Giardia outbreak from birds?
The Redlands Animal Shelter in California is looking into bird control measures after blaming Giardia infections in dogs on exposure to wild bird poop. On Facebook, Redlands Friends of Shelter Animals have declared "We have a serious problem with birds at the shelter. They land on the kennels and poop goes into the
Giardia in dogs and cats in Ontario
Dr. Andrew Peregrine, a veterinary parasitologist at the Ontario Veterinary College, presented some data about the types of Giardia found in dogs and cats in Ontario at this week’s University of Guelph Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses annual meeting.
A lot of attention has been paid to Giardia types in recent years. That’s
Chinchillas and Giardia
One concern with uncommon pets is our relatively poor understanding of the infectious agents they may carry. For our "established" pet species, we have a reasonable understanding of what bugs tend to be present and which animals may be at higher risk. The less common the pet, the less research tends to be available, making
Dogs and Giardia types
While the potential health risks to people exposed to dogs with Giardia have received a lot of attention (and concern), there’s more and more evidence indicating that dogs pose a very limited risk to people. Giardia is a protozoal parasite that can cause diarrhea in numerous animal species, including people and dogs. It can also
Giardia in London (UK) shelter
A recent paper in the journal Veterinary Parasitology (Upjohn et al 2010) described a study looking at Giardia infections in dogs in a central London shelter. The researchers collected a fecal samples from dogs within 1 day of arrival and tested them for Giardia.
- 21% of dogs were shedding Giardia on arrival at
Giardia outbreak closes shelter
A Fort McMurray (Alberta) SPCA shelter has been closed because of a Giardia outbreak. Giardia is an intestinal parasite that can cause diarrhea in dogs (and other species, including people) but can also be found in about 7% of healthy dogs. Giardia infection was confirmed in four dogs in the shelter, which led to the
Giardia in dog parks
There is a recent paper in Preventive Veterinary Medicine about a study of Giardia in canine stool samples collected from urban green areas around Pisa, Italy (Papini et al). The authors went to parks and similar areas and collected stool samples off the ground. They then tested the samples for the presence of
More on Giardia in healthy dogs
New research provides more information on the debate about testing and treating of healthy dogs for Giardia. Two abstracts on the subject by researchers at Colorado State University were presented at the recent American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine conference.
In the first study (Clark et al), fecal samples were collected from 220 healthy