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OVC Study Finds No Dog Flu in Ontario
BY ANDREW VOWLES
Fears that a highly contagious dog flu that swept throughout the United States might cross the border into Ontario are unfounded, say OVC researchers.
Dog owners and veterinarians had feared the worst in 2004 when canine influenza appeared in racing greyhounds in Florida. Although the respiratory infection has since spread to every state, testing of dogs from across Ontario has turned up virtually no sign of dog flu, says Prof. Stephen Kruth, Clinical Studies.
We can't find it in Ontario that's the good news. When the virus was first identified, we thought we might see a pandemic.
Kruth and departmental colleague Prof. Scott Weese tested dogs across the province last year. Out of blood samples collected from 250 dogs and tested by Susy Carman in the Animal Health Laboratory at OVC, only one turned up positive for exposure to the pertinent virus. That dog, a greyhound from Kitchener that had lived earlier in Florida, had developed antibodies against the disease and was not infectious.
The researchers plan to submit a paper on the study to the Canadian Veterinary Journal.
Canine flu remains most common in greyhounds, but it affects all dog breeds. Cases of the disease number in the hundreds in states where the infection is most prevalent, particularly California, New York and Florida, says Kruth.
Of infected dogs, 20 per cent show no clinical signs of disease. Three of four infected animals develop symptoms resembling kennel cough, including fever, cough and a runny nose, for up to four weeks. Fewer than five per cent of infected animals suffer severe symptoms; a few of those dogs die within a day of developing them.
Concerns for dogs' health remain in the United States, where the disease has spread to every state through breeding facilities, animal shelters, kennels, veterinary clinics and contact with other pets. About eight in 10 dogs exposed to the virus will develop the disease. Infected dogs are isolated and treated for symptoms; no vaccine exists for the virus.
Veterinarians believe the bug developed from a form of equine flu that jumped from horses to dogs. The canine version was identified by researchers at the University of Florida and Cornell University.
Kruth says he can't explain why the infection appears to have stopped at the Ontario border. He has seen no reports of the disease from anywhere else in Canada. That's partly what makes the case so intriguing for him.
It's fascinating, he says, explaining that he's interested generally in the spread of disease and how infectious organisms jump between species. It's satisfying to be able to say it's not even an emergency situation, it's not an epidemic.