Dog Flu Pandemic Alert, Canine Flu

There is no doubt that the hand of the much talked about "bird flu" influenza virus recently became one of the "starlets" of global health. While many health experts, more or less spirit to generate concern, announced the early arrival of a pandemic, small animal veterinarians were professionally far enough outside the theme, if not directly influenced our work. However, a strong new alarm is sounding: in the U.S. and there are hundreds of cases of dogs infected with a strain of influenza, the same suffering horses.

Information on the Internet is vast. The Chronicle Veterinary contacted her after learning that in the latest edition of the North American Veterinary Conference, one of the most surprising news that was caused precisely that of the "Dog Flu".

There are few who are paying attention to the issue. In fact, nothing less than The New York Times, one of the world's most prestigious newspaper, published an article on September 22, 2005 titled "A new and deadly Canine Flu is detected in seven states."

According to this note, a highly contagious and sometimes deadly "Dog Flu" was detected in kennels and dog racing tracks around the U.S. The virus killed dogs even in suburban New York.

A researcher at the University of Florida, Dr. Cynda Crawford, said the virus spreads more easily where dogs live together or spend time in parks or nurseries, but can be spread on the street and even from men. "Workers of the kennels carried the virus to their homes," he said. The New York Times, it is unclear how many dogs have died from this flu, but it is estimated that 1% of those infected, a figure that grows by 10% between the pups and aging pets. In addition, Dr. Crawford added that because dogs have no natural immunity against influenza, virtually every animal exposed would be infected, and that the symptoms were often mistaken for "Kennel Cough". What are the signs of the flu? High fever, mucus, cough. Some animals may suffer pneumonia.

The strain is the H3N8 influenza. According to reports from virologists from Cornell University published in the journal Science, the gene sequence contains all segments of the virus affecting horses. "The flu virus can jump to other species in two ways: whole, essentially unchanged, or combining with another strain to turn into a third" person "within the new target species. Cases of bird flu transmission between a bird and a human in Southeast Asia are an example of the first mechanism. But this type of transmission is rare, and usually does not usually move quickly to the other guests the new target species (in this case, other humans). However, experts say that what is remarkable about the transmission between horses and dogs is that the virus apparently is spreading easily to other dogs. The scientists described this phenomenon as "unprecedented."

However, the variant equine / canine is very different from the H5N1 avian influenza and attacking men. So while no investigator ruled that in future the evil becomes a zoonosis, we do not see it as an imminent danger. It was not yet any reports of cats have been infected by contact with sick dogs.

Several scholars note that there is still no vaccine for Canine Flu, but believe it would not be so difficult to develop. Among other things, ensure that the Canine Flu is less lethal than parvovirus. Also, note that several laboratory tests showed that the new flu was successfully combated with two common antivirals in the U.S., amantadine and Tamiflu (the same one that seeks to use to fight bird flu), but the use of these drugs in dogs was not yet authorized.

The first sign of the "Dog Flu" was registered in 2004, when eight of the 24 greyhounds who lived in kennels for a racetrack in Jacksonville, Fla., died after flu-like symptoms and developed pulmonary hemorrhage. Then there were cases in Massachusetts, Arizona, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Texas and Iowa these racecourses and breeding states were forced to close for weeks for disinfection intense. Then came 35 cases in Ossining, a town near New York, and two of the dogs died. The last episode was in Chestnut Ridge, also near New York, where 88 dogs became ill and ten had to be hospitalized. It is estimated that U.S. there are about 50 million dogs.