Canine_flu.indd

related to deadly canine flu
for “kennel cough,” a common canine illness that is caused by the bordetella bronchiseptica bacteria.
Both diseases can cause coughing and gagging for up A new, highly contagious and sometimes deadly canine to three weeks, but dogs with canine flu may spike flu is spreading in kennels and at dog tracks around the fevers as high as 106 degrees and have runny noses. A country, veterinarians said yesterday.
few will develop pneumonia, and some of those cases will be fatal. Antibiotics and fluid cut the pneumonia The virus, which scientists say mutated from an influenza strain that affects horses, has killed racing greyhounds in seven states and has been found in The virus is an H3N8 flu closely related to an equine shelters and pet shops in many places, including the flu strain. It is not related to typical human flus or to New York suburbs, though the extent of its spread is the H5N1 avian flu that has killed about 100 people in Dr. Cynda Crawford, an immunologist at the University Experts said there were no known cases of the canine of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine who is flu infecting humans. “The risk of that is low, but we studying the virus, said that it spread most easily where are keeping an eye on it,” said Dr. Ruben Donis, chief dogs were housed together but that it could also be of molecular genetics for the influenza branch of the passed on the street, in dog runs or even by a human Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is transferring it from one dog to another. Kennel workers tracking the illness.
have carried the virus home with them, she said.
But with the approach of the human flu season and How many dogs die from the virus is unclear, but fears about bird flu in Asia, there is much confusion scientists said the fatality rate is more than 1 percent among some dog owners who have heard about the and could be as high as 10 percent among puppies and disease.
Dr. Crawford said she was fielding calls from kennels Dr. Crawford first began investigating greyhound and veterinarians across the country worried that they deaths in January 2004 at a racetrack in Jacksonville, Fla., where 8 of the 24 greyhounds who contracted “The hysteria out there is unbelievable, and the misinformation is incredible,” said Dr. Ann E. “This is a newly emerging pathogen,” she said, “and Hohenhaus, chief of medicine at the Animal Medical we have very little information to make predictions about it. But I think the fatality rate is between 1 and 10 Dr. Hohenhaus said she had heard of an alert from a Virginia dog club reporting rumors that 10,000 show She added that because dogs had no natural immunity dogs had died.
to the virus, virtually every animal exposed would be infected. About 80 percent of dogs that are infected “We don’t believe that’s true,” she said, adding that no with the virus will develop symptoms, Dr. Crawford dogs in her Manhattan hospital even had coughs.
said. She added that the symptoms were often mistaken Dr. Donis of the disease control centers said that The Best Friends chain owns 41 other kennels in 18 there was currently no vaccine for the canine flu. states, and no others have had an outbreak, Dr. Larry J. But he said one would be relatively easy to develop. Nieman, the company’s veterinarian, said.
The canine flu is less lethal than parvovirus, which typically kills puppies but can be prevented by In late July, at Gracelane Kennels in Ossining, N.Y., about 35 dogs showed symptoms, said the owner, Bob Gatti, and he closed the kennel for three weeks to Laboratory tests, Dr. Donis said, have shown that the new flu is susceptible to the two most common antiviral drugs, amantidine and Tamiflu, but those About 25 of the dogs were treated by an Ossining drugs are not licensed for use in dogs.
veterinarian, Glenn M. Zeitz, who said two of them had The flu has killed greyhounds at tracks in Florida, Massachusetts, Arizona, West Virginia, Wisconsin, “The dogs came in very sick, with high fevers and very Texas and Iowa. Tracks and kennels have been high white blood cell counts,” Dr. Zeitz said, making forced to shut down for weeks for disinfection.
him suspicious that they had something worse In Chestnut Ridge, north of New York City, about 88 dogs became sick by early September, and 15 A spokesman for the New York City Health Department percent of those required hospitalization, said Debra said that there were “a few confirmed cases” in New Bennetts, a spokeswoman for Best Friends Pet Care, York but that the city was not yet tracking the disease.
a chain of boarding kennels. The kennel was vacated Veterinarians voluntarily sent samples to the Animal Health Diagnostic Center at the Cornell School of About 17 of the infected dogs were treated at the Oradell Animal Hospital in Paramus, N.J., where one laboratory doing blood tests.
died and two more were still hospitalized, a staff

Source: http://www.teamtools.ca/thermo/Canine_Flu.pdf