My post earlier this week about culling considerations for control of disease outbreaks in animals generated some good discussion and ideas (and a surprisingly small number of “you’re an idiot” emails). Although that post was focused primarily on culling in response to influenza outbreaks, we can also think about it little more broadly
To Cull or Not to Cull: Managing H5N1 in an Era of Endemicity
The recent situation has raised more discussion about the role of mass culling in response to H5N1 influenza infection in domestic / captive birds. After H5N1 flu was identified on an ostrich farm in British Columbia, the CFIA ordered all 400 birds to be culled, but the owner is trying to find options to preserve
Salmonella Outbreak From Geckos: Canada
Outbreaks of human salmonellosis linked to reptiles are far from rare or noteworthy, but since they’re still common, clearly we still need to talk about them to help increase awareness.
The latest such outbreak in Canada involved 25 cases of Salmonella Muenchen infection in people linked to contact with geckos. Cases stretched from British Columbia
Snakes, Rodents, Bearded Dragons and Salmonella
Reptiles and Salmonella is about as far from a new story as anything on this blog, but talking about it is still worthwhile, because it’s still making people ill. I’ll package two similar stories into one post here.
Update: Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease (December 8)
Spoiler alert: there’s not a lot new to say about the ongoing situation with canine infectious respiratory disease in North America. Most of this I’ve said before. Talk seems to be dying down in a lot of areas, but whether that’s because there are fewer cases or people are just getting bored of talking
Update: Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease (December 1)
In situations like the ongoing concern with canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC) in the US, where we don’t have any semblance of a surveillance program, we can sometimes try to piece together the picture using different data sets and observations; insurance claims can be a valuable part of this. At our webinar on
Canine Respiratory Disease Outbreak: Advice For Groomers
There’s a lot of concern about respiratory disease in dogs at the moment, so it’s a opportunity time to revisit some routine preventive measures that we really should be using all the time (but unfortunately sometimes fall by the wayside). This post focuses on precautions for dog groomers, but really it applies to a
Canine Respiratory Illness Q&A: Free Webinar (November 30)
Dr. Mike Lappin and I are teaming up with Dr. Carrie Jurney (President of Not One More Vet) and Dr. Steve Weinrauch (Chief Veterinary/Product Officer of Trupanion, founder of MightyVet) for a webinar about canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC) issues in the US (plus some Canadian content). There may be a
A Dog Owner’s Guide to Navigating Respiratory Disease Concerns
There’s been a lot of discussion about canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC) going around in dogs in the US recently. In the last week, I’ve already covered this from a few different angles, including what might really be going on with all the reports of sick dogs, reports of the potential involvement of
New Weird Canine Respiratory Pathogen? What Do We Know?
As concerns about an outbreak of canine infectious respiratory disease in the US continue, we’re still at a point where media hype massively outweighs any true data. Not much new has been reported recently. If anything, I’d say we’re hearing more about things being stable in different areas, that investigations haven’t turned up anything beyond