Well, not really. Presumably most people don’t have direct contact with skunks; however, that doesn’t mean skunks can’t pick up viruses from us. A study published in Zoonoses and Public Health (Britton et al. 2018) investigated human H1N1 influenza in wild skunks in the greater Vancouver, BC (Canada) area, following up on an earlier study… Continue Reading
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Update: Canine influenza, Ontario (December 3)
Posted in Dogs, Other diseasesI’m once again prepared to call Ontario (and Canada) canine influenza-free… for now, at least. The latest cluster, associated with another importation of the virus from China, seems to have been contained. The last new positive case was identified October 30, with the likely date of exposure being October 23. We are now beyond the… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, Ontario (November 17)
Posted in DogsI’ve been behind on posts so here’s a quick update: things seem to be going well in the latest Canadian H3N2 canine influenza outbreak. Here’s the rundown: After eradicating the last outbreak in the spring, cases were identified again in mid-October, associated with more importation of dogs from Asia. The last new positive dog was… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, Ontario (October 30)
Posted in DogsThings have been quiet over the past few days. That’s good news (but always makes me a bit antsy, because I want to be sure it’s because there are no new cases vs we’re just not finding them). Documented infections have been confined to one region, with the exception of a dog that travelled out… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, Ontario (October 25)
Posted in DogsAs expected, a few more cases have been identified in the most recent cluster of canine influenza virus (CIV) identified in Ontario. So far, there are about 20 confirmed or suspected cases. To date, we’re still only finding cases that have a link to another infected dog or facility. That’s good news. If we start… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, US and Canada (2018 October)
Posted in DogsWhile we’re still working on sorting out and containing our latest Canadian outbreak of H3N2 canine influenza, we can look to the south to see the problems this virus is still causing. Flu is still active in a variety of locations in the US. The numbers reported are presumably a marked under-estimate, since it’s based… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, Ontario (October 20)
Posted in DogsMore cases of H3N2 canine influenza have been identified in the province since the virus was re-introduction to central Ontario in the last week. That’s not surprising, since the start of any outbreak investigation is dedicated to figuring out the extent of the problem. Cases identified in the first few days or week reflect things… Continue Reading
Return of canine influenza: Ontario, Canada
Posted in DogsCanine influenza virus (CIV) has been re-introduced to Ontario, again in the Muskoka region. Variant typing for the latest case should be available shortly, but in all likelihood this is once again H3N2 CIV. More details will follow; however, dog owners and veterinarians in this region should be aware of the return of this highly… Continue Reading
International animal disease mapping
Posted in DogsWe’ve tried a number of different infectious diseases initiatives in the past, aimed at increasing infectious disease education and awareness of both veterinarians and pet owners. Some have worked very well (like this blog), others less so. However, there’s still a lot that can be done. Here’s our latest initiative – whether it flies or… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, US and Canada (May 18)
Posted in DogsThe latest IDEXX Laboratories maps and case list are below. Canine flu continues to cause problems in some parts of the US, and is spreading in some states. California and Nevada have had active flu for a few months, but it may be abating. New clusters are popping up in other areas, most notably in… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, Ontario (April 23)
Posted in DogsI’ve been holding off saying “it’s gone” but based on all the information we have at the moment, there’s no evidence of ongoing canine flu activity in Canada, at least for now. No new cases have been identified in a few weeks and we are now beyond the 28-day recommended quarantine period for all of… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, Ontario (April 9)
Posted in DogsNo news is good news… at least hopefully. The past week was quite encouraging. No new cases of canine influenza were identified in Ontario. A couple of “inconclusive” results were obtained from dogs in the Northumberland cluster that were previously positive. I approach these as essentially “weak positives,” because it means the test detected viral… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, USA (April 4)
Posted in DogsI’m slowly catching up so here are last week’s data from IDEXX Laboratories on the canine flu situation in the US. The two main areas of concern remain California and Nevada. The number of new cases dropped quite a bit from the previous week. That’s encouraging, but it can be hard to interpret passive surveillance… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, Ontario (April 2)
Posted in DogsI’ve been slow to provide an update, partly because I’ve been sick (not with canine flu) and partly because there’s fortunately less to report. Muskoka We are still testing but it’s pretty low yield. One challenge is the baseline upper respiratory disease activity in the area. There are various viruses and bacteria that cause flu-like… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, Ontario (March 23)
Posted in DogsWindsor-Essex: Things have been quiet there for a while and this seems to be a nice success story. The two flu clusters that were active in January were contained and nothing new has been seen. Muskoka: Good progress has been made. Few new cases have been identified over the past two weeks. One problematic aspect… Continue Reading
Canine influenza disinfection
Posted in DogsI’m lazy so I’ll use the blog to answer a question that I’m getting a few times a day. Today’s question: how to disinfect a veterinary clinic if there is a concern about canine influenza? The good news is that influenza viruses are pretty wimpy. They’re enveloped viruses, meaning they are covered by a fragile fatty… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, US and Canada (March 13)
Posted in DogsUnited States (data courtesy of IDEXX Laboratories) Canine flu continues to cause problems in the US, particularly the west coast. Northern California (471 cases) and Nevada (207 cases) are the hotbeds. As ever, since these data are from diagnostic laboratory submissions, they probably represent the minority of cases (since most dogs with respiratory tract disease… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, Ontario (March 10)
Posted in DogsActive canine influenza cases are still known to be present in two regions in Ontario. Muskoka A small number of dogs from the initial cluster of cases in the Orillia/Bracebridge/Gravenhurst region are still shedding the virus, as expected given this virus can be shed by some dogs for a few weeks. The dogs that made… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, Ontario (March 8)
Posted in Dogs, VaccinationCanine influenza continues to cause problems in Ontario. The central Ontario (Bracebridge, Gravenhurst, Orillia) clusters continue to be monitored, with new positives that were expected based on known contact with infected dogs. Whether these clusters have been contained (or are containable) remains to be seen. Testing and contact tracing continues. As mentioned previously, there was… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, Ontario (March 5)
Posted in DogsThe third cluster of canine flu in Ontario is a problem. While the first two, in the Windsor-Essex area, were relatively small and have been contained, the recent, ongoing central Ontario cluster is larger and more widespread. There are over 20 confirmed cases to date. However, it is very likely that the actual number is… Continue Reading
Canine influenza in Canada: New cluster
Posted in DogsWhile we had hoped that control of the two recent clusters of H3N2 canine influenza in Windsor-Essex, Ontario, meant that the province was again free of that virus, another cluster of infections has been identified, this time in Orillia, Ontario. Investigation is ongoing so the number of infected dogs is currently unclear, but as always,… Continue Reading
Update: Canine influenza, US (Feb 22)
Posted in DogsThe table below has the latest H3N2 canine influenza numbers from IDEXX Laboratories. Some of the highlights include: Numbers continue to increase. Northern California and Nevada are the hotbeds, with northern CA cases increasing to 343 and Nevada 151. As always, these are just the tested cases, and they presumably represent a small minority of… Continue Reading
Canine flu outbreak update: US
Posted in DogsWhile we have hopefully been able to contain our two recent H3N2 canine influenza clusters in Canada (more on that later), this virus continues to spread in some parts of the US, particularly Northern California and Nevada. Since the last update from IDEXX Laboratories on February 2nd, they have identified another 164 cases in the… Continue Reading
Canine influenza update: Ontario
Posted in DogsAnother case of canine influenza has been identified in Windsor-Essex, Ontario. Investigation of the source is underway and measures are in place to try to contain the virus. As with the other recent cluster of H3N2 canine influenza cases in that region, there is concern about entry of this virus into a naive canine population… Continue Reading