Post by mugsy on Sept 14, 2006 22:55:44 GMT 1
www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/09/12/m1a_DOGFLU3_0912.html
Owners fear dog flu at parks, want it collared
By Stacey Singer
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
JUPITER — Sunset romps at the dog park ended abruptly for Jake the dingo-Lab when he came down with spasms of ka-ha coughs.
Shelagh Dufault kept him home for weeks.
How did a mysterious greyhound illness jump from dog track to household?
"I've owned dogs all my life, and I've never heard this cough," she said. "In the middle of the night, he was frantic, and he started huffing in my face. I told seven or eight people to tell everybody in the dog park."
In the end, most of Jake's ball-chasing, mouth-wrestling pack also fell ill — more than a dozen dogs in all, Dufault reckons. But was it dog flu? She doesn't know but worries.
Since influenza was first discovered in Jacksonville racing greyhounds in 2004, testing at several universities has found it at racetracks, boarding kennels and shelters. But not at dog parks, so far.
Highly contagious canine influenza is emerging at a time when dog lovers travel, dine and socialize with their animals like never before. Most communities in Palm Beach County have at least one dog park, a place where the animals can run free. The Florida Legislature just passed a pilot project that gives communities the option of letting dogs join owners at outdoor restaurants.
With so much canine fraternization, fear is growing that a general pet epidemic will be next — with dog parks a key transmission point. Any place dogs congregate — private kennels, vet offices, assorted pet shops — could pose a danger of infection.
Linda Collucci manages Club Bow Wow, a dog day care and groomer in Boca Raton, which offers pet birthday parties complete with cake and treat bags.
"A lot of our clients have stopped going to the doggie parks for a while," Collucci said.
Her store has stayed flu-free.
"We've made all our clients aware," she said. "We've always maintained that they be up to date on their shots, and we've been sticklers for disinfectant."
Vaccine merits debated
Researchers still have much to learn about the virus, but they do know that it's highly contagious days before an animal shows symptoms. It can remain viable for two or three days on the sticks and balls that dogs chase, or on the shoes and clothing of the people around them.
"This virus has been in this state for two years now, in kennels, shelters and racing greyhound facilities," said Dr. Cynda Crawford, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.
"It's not been documented at dog parks or in show dogs. It has not happened yet — but it could."
Pet owners are thinking twice about outings with their dogs.
"All dogs are equally vulnerable, regardless of age or breed," said Crawford, who is working closely with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is because it's a new pathogen in dogs, so they have no preexisting immunity to it."
Palm Beach County recently had an especially bad bout of dog flu.
It tore through the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League in West Palm Beach, sickening about 180 dogs so far this year. It cut back the greyhound racing schedule at the Palm Beach Kennel Club, and it forced the euthanasia of dozens of adoptable dogs at Palm Beach County Animal Care & Control.
The precise extent of the local outbreak is unknown. Though government agencies keep track of human influenza, they don't monitor dog flu.
Animal Care & Control has taken the stance that because the influenza has a silent contagious period, one positive case requires the destruction of all exposed dogs. It's for the greater good of the other animals, said Dianne Sauve, director of the shelter.
But if an effective vaccine existed, that might not be necessary. "If people in the community were vaccinating, you wouldn't have that fear of the unknown in taking a dog in and possibly infecting other dogs," Sauve said.
While pet owners and shelter directors pine for a vaccine, the National Greyhound Association, which represents owners of racing dogs, is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to go slowly.
"The National Greyhound Association's fear is that an influenza vaccine would go on the market, and every racetrack and every state racing authority would force them to immunize their dogs multiple times for no value. And vaccines are never innocuous," said Dr. Brad Fenwick, a consultant to the greyhound association and a Virginia Tech professor and veterinarian.
"The vaccine is already developed; it's sitting in the USDA Center for Veterinary Biologics. The issue there is one of value vs. cost," Fenwick said.
Too much hype?
Rick Hill, director of the Department of Agriculture's Center for Veterinary Biologics, said he cannot confirm whether a vaccine is under consideration because that information is protected under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. He did acknowledge that the department is accepting license applications for a dog flu vaccine.
To approve one, he said, the department must find evidence of genuine illness, proof that the germ the vaccine attacks is linked to that illness, and data that shows the vaccine protects an animal against infection.
"That usually comes from a large body of research," Hill said. "I don't know that we have that for influenza at this point."
Fenwick and the National Greyhound Association's argument is that dog flu is a relatively mild disease, one that runs its course without causing significant injury or death.
Crawford says dog flu can be fatal up to 8 percent of the time, although there's considerable discussion about whether it's growing less lethal over time. Fenwick thinks Crawford has overstated its seriousness.
"It is, for all the world, symptomatically a cold," Fenwick said. "The trouble is there has been a lot of hype and a lot of sensationalism. Part of that is timing because of the avian influenza."
Sauve said she was stunned that anyone would try to oppose the release of a vaccine against what just tore through her shelter.
"Try housing 30,000 animals with a highly contagious bad cold that can last a month," Sauve said. "It's very easy for people not in the position I or my staff are in to say it's horrendous to euthanize animals, but those people are not walking in our shoes."
Obtaining a reliable diagnosis of the flu can be difficult, too. Laboratories at UF and Cornell University offer the service. The San Diego company Cyntegra has produced a diagnostic test kit for veterinarians. It can deliver results within 24 hours, but it costs more than $100 per sample, so its use is not widespread.
Meanwhile, there's no cure. Pet owners face difficult decisions about whether to take their dogs to places where they'll encounter other animals.
Dufault, owner of Jake the dingo-Lab, said she kept him away from his pack at the dog park for most of August, but they're back to their favorite spot again.
She's working with her vet and Crawford's lab at UF to see whether Jake really had the flu, or one of the more common causes of cough, such as bordetella. She'd like to know.
On the other hand, she's worried about the consequences.
"We don't want to lose the dog park. That is a big fear. We don't want it to be thought of as a breeding ground for contagious disease," Dufault said. "I think the whole concept of dog parks is an amazing thing. For me, it's stress relief."
Owners fear dog flu at parks, want it collared
By Stacey Singer
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
JUPITER — Sunset romps at the dog park ended abruptly for Jake the dingo-Lab when he came down with spasms of ka-ha coughs.
Shelagh Dufault kept him home for weeks.
How did a mysterious greyhound illness jump from dog track to household?
"I've owned dogs all my life, and I've never heard this cough," she said. "In the middle of the night, he was frantic, and he started huffing in my face. I told seven or eight people to tell everybody in the dog park."
In the end, most of Jake's ball-chasing, mouth-wrestling pack also fell ill — more than a dozen dogs in all, Dufault reckons. But was it dog flu? She doesn't know but worries.
Since influenza was first discovered in Jacksonville racing greyhounds in 2004, testing at several universities has found it at racetracks, boarding kennels and shelters. But not at dog parks, so far.
Highly contagious canine influenza is emerging at a time when dog lovers travel, dine and socialize with their animals like never before. Most communities in Palm Beach County have at least one dog park, a place where the animals can run free. The Florida Legislature just passed a pilot project that gives communities the option of letting dogs join owners at outdoor restaurants.
With so much canine fraternization, fear is growing that a general pet epidemic will be next — with dog parks a key transmission point. Any place dogs congregate — private kennels, vet offices, assorted pet shops — could pose a danger of infection.
Linda Collucci manages Club Bow Wow, a dog day care and groomer in Boca Raton, which offers pet birthday parties complete with cake and treat bags.
"A lot of our clients have stopped going to the doggie parks for a while," Collucci said.
Her store has stayed flu-free.
"We've made all our clients aware," she said. "We've always maintained that they be up to date on their shots, and we've been sticklers for disinfectant."
Vaccine merits debated
Researchers still have much to learn about the virus, but they do know that it's highly contagious days before an animal shows symptoms. It can remain viable for two or three days on the sticks and balls that dogs chase, or on the shoes and clothing of the people around them.
"This virus has been in this state for two years now, in kennels, shelters and racing greyhound facilities," said Dr. Cynda Crawford, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.
"It's not been documented at dog parks or in show dogs. It has not happened yet — but it could."
Pet owners are thinking twice about outings with their dogs.
"All dogs are equally vulnerable, regardless of age or breed," said Crawford, who is working closely with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is because it's a new pathogen in dogs, so they have no preexisting immunity to it."
Palm Beach County recently had an especially bad bout of dog flu.
It tore through the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League in West Palm Beach, sickening about 180 dogs so far this year. It cut back the greyhound racing schedule at the Palm Beach Kennel Club, and it forced the euthanasia of dozens of adoptable dogs at Palm Beach County Animal Care & Control.
The precise extent of the local outbreak is unknown. Though government agencies keep track of human influenza, they don't monitor dog flu.
Animal Care & Control has taken the stance that because the influenza has a silent contagious period, one positive case requires the destruction of all exposed dogs. It's for the greater good of the other animals, said Dianne Sauve, director of the shelter.
But if an effective vaccine existed, that might not be necessary. "If people in the community were vaccinating, you wouldn't have that fear of the unknown in taking a dog in and possibly infecting other dogs," Sauve said.
While pet owners and shelter directors pine for a vaccine, the National Greyhound Association, which represents owners of racing dogs, is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to go slowly.
"The National Greyhound Association's fear is that an influenza vaccine would go on the market, and every racetrack and every state racing authority would force them to immunize their dogs multiple times for no value. And vaccines are never innocuous," said Dr. Brad Fenwick, a consultant to the greyhound association and a Virginia Tech professor and veterinarian.
"The vaccine is already developed; it's sitting in the USDA Center for Veterinary Biologics. The issue there is one of value vs. cost," Fenwick said.
Too much hype?
Rick Hill, director of the Department of Agriculture's Center for Veterinary Biologics, said he cannot confirm whether a vaccine is under consideration because that information is protected under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. He did acknowledge that the department is accepting license applications for a dog flu vaccine.
To approve one, he said, the department must find evidence of genuine illness, proof that the germ the vaccine attacks is linked to that illness, and data that shows the vaccine protects an animal against infection.
"That usually comes from a large body of research," Hill said. "I don't know that we have that for influenza at this point."
Fenwick and the National Greyhound Association's argument is that dog flu is a relatively mild disease, one that runs its course without causing significant injury or death.
Crawford says dog flu can be fatal up to 8 percent of the time, although there's considerable discussion about whether it's growing less lethal over time. Fenwick thinks Crawford has overstated its seriousness.
"It is, for all the world, symptomatically a cold," Fenwick said. "The trouble is there has been a lot of hype and a lot of sensationalism. Part of that is timing because of the avian influenza."
Sauve said she was stunned that anyone would try to oppose the release of a vaccine against what just tore through her shelter.
"Try housing 30,000 animals with a highly contagious bad cold that can last a month," Sauve said. "It's very easy for people not in the position I or my staff are in to say it's horrendous to euthanize animals, but those people are not walking in our shoes."
Obtaining a reliable diagnosis of the flu can be difficult, too. Laboratories at UF and Cornell University offer the service. The San Diego company Cyntegra has produced a diagnostic test kit for veterinarians. It can deliver results within 24 hours, but it costs more than $100 per sample, so its use is not widespread.
Meanwhile, there's no cure. Pet owners face difficult decisions about whether to take their dogs to places where they'll encounter other animals.
Dufault, owner of Jake the dingo-Lab, said she kept him away from his pack at the dog park for most of August, but they're back to their favorite spot again.
She's working with her vet and Crawford's lab at UF to see whether Jake really had the flu, or one of the more common causes of cough, such as bordetella. She'd like to know.
On the other hand, she's worried about the consequences.
"We don't want to lose the dog park. That is a big fear. We don't want it to be thought of as a breeding ground for contagious disease," Dufault said. "I think the whole concept of dog parks is an amazing thing. For me, it's stress relief."