Yes, I’m prone to making typos. No, this title isn’t one of them.
While we’re in the midst of an unprecedented international outbreak of H5N1 avian flu (with ongoing spillover into mammals), there’s a new kid on the block: H5N5 influenza. I think recent reports of H5N5 were glossed over by some who didn’t realize
As the unprecedented global H5N1 avian flu outbreak continues (with no real end in sight), and as we get the spring mix of migrating birds, mingling bird populations, more active wildlife and a pending crop of baby wild critters, concerns about spillover infections from birds to mammals are on the rise.
The current H5N1 influenza
The other day, I said that finding H5N1 avian flu in dogs was unsurprising. That also applies (probably even more so) to cats. We’ve known for years that cats are susceptible to H5N1, and since some cats spend a lot of time unsupervised outside and interact with (and eat) birds, they have lots of
I have Labrador Retrievers, so I’m well versed in dealing with the implications of what my dogs have been eating (Labs being prone to considering just about anything fair game for ingestion). Owning such a pair of environmental vacuums, the question of whether dogs might be at risk of H5N1 avian flu exposure from bird
This can be filed under “concerning but not surprising,” but H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in a dog in Ontario.
It’s concerning because any spillover into mammals raises concerns about continued adaptation of this virus to spread outside birds, and because spillover infections in mammals can be severe.
It’s not surprising
We’ve been dealing with a major shortage of canine influenza vaccine for a while. That’s caused a few different hassles, some related to disease and others related to vaccination requirements.
A quick recap: There are a couple of different strains of dog-adpated flu internationally, but currently we’re really just worried about H3N2. This strain is
As the current (and unprecedented) H5N1 avian flu outbreak continues, there’s the ongoing threat of transmission to other species. The extent of spread to mammals is hard to say since it’s hard to know how many wild mammals have been infected. However, we know that an impressive range of species has been infected. Spread to
The ongoing H5N1 avian influenza outbreak is an unprecedented event in its size, scope and duration (but it’s not getting much press anymore these days). As infections continue to occur is birds in large numbers over a vast geographic range, we worry about spillover events into other species.
There have now been many reports of
It’s been a busy fall for canine flu. We’ve started tracking canine influenza cases to have a better idea of its spread and to help with risk assessment and vaccination decisions (although canine flu vaccine shortages have also been an issue).
We’ve created an interactive map of our preliminary canine flu surveillance to date
As canine flu causes another (and particularly impressive) round of outbreaks in the US, a lot of questions arise. A big one involves vaccination.
I won’t go over the whole “what is canine flu?” spiel in this post, but I’ll give a quick overview of why we care about it. It’s a highly
