These days, it’s really easy to identify new viruses. Our technology has advanced so much that you can sequence a vast array of viruses from almost any sample from an animal, person or the environment. Finding the viruses is easy, but understanding what, if any, roll they play in the grand scheme of things is
Cyclospora has been in the news a lot lately because of a large, ongoing outbreak of cyclosporiasis in people in the US. Total case counts aren’t clear (and official numbers are always lower than the true number of cases because of under reporting) but it’s estimated that well over 10 000 people have been
Hot on the heels of the H5N1 influenza in ostriches debacle in BC comes a reported outbreak of H5N1 influenza at an animal sanctuary in the same province. The sanctuary (Critteraid Animal Sanctuary) is not one I’ve ever heard of before, but based on their website, it looks like a good operation
Last month, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) issued a somewhat vague notice about an ongoing outbreak investigation of Salmonella infections linked to dog food and treats. At the time they were still unable to identify a specific brand or manufacturer to which the outbreak had been linked.
This week PHAC posted an
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
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
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
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.
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
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
