Farmers will not be able to protect their dogs against a canine influenza spreading across the United States, says a Saskatoon scientist.
“The current vaccines for infectious disease in dogs will not address this disease or prevent this disease,” said Hugh Townsend, who works at the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization.
The canine flu is a contagious and sometimes deadly virus now spreading in the U.S. It is the first time the disease has appeared in dogs, but Townsend said an almost identical virus in horses has existed for more than 40 years.
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The equine flu is a respiratory disease causing fever, cough, nasal discharge, depression, weight loss and sometimes death in horses.
“The influenza virus changes little bits all the time,” Townsend said.
“Every year, we have a slightly new kind of horse virus and none of those have ever made it into dogs before.”
But that’s no longer the case. Townsend said the first cases of canine flu cropped up in Greyhounds at racetracks in Florida. From there, it spread to animal shelters and pets.
To date, Townsend said 24 dogs have become ill and eight have died in the U.S.
“Something happened here that we don’t understand, that allowed this virus to jump into the dog like that.”
Townsend, who is also a faculty member at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine and an expert on equine flu, has been tracking the new canine form of the virus in the U.S. He doesn’t worry about dogs catching the disease from horses.
“This was a very, very rare event, so horses are not a risk to dogs that way,” Townsend said. “It’s not a horse problem, it’s a dog problem.”
He said Canadian dogs could be affected soon because the virus can be transmitted from dog to dog.
“There’s no reason it wouldn’t make it into Canada, but to our present knowledge, although people are just starting to look (for it) now, it’s not yet occurred in Canada.”
Elizabeth Snead, a faculty member in internal medicine at the WCVM, said scientists in the U.S. are working on vaccine for dogs.
The flu is similar to a human cold, Snead said, because the virus can be spread through a sneeze or cough.
Townsend said the canine flu could become a common aspect of a dog’s life.
“It’s just a disease now that is spreading and because dogs have never had this virus before, then dogs are generally susceptible,” Townsend said. “So you’d expect that it will just gradually spread throughout the dog population.”
Townsend said dog owners should watch for symptoms in their dogs. Coughing, listlessness and fevers could signal canine flu.
“It would be good to keep it (your dog) separate from other dogs for, you know, seven to 14 days in an effort to keep it from passing the virus on.”
Snead said the disease is most prominent in enclosed areas such as horse and dog racetracks and animal shelters, where the virus can spread quickly.
There is a possibility the new canine flu could disappear before it affects Canadian dogs, Townsend said, but he doesn’t expect that to happen.
“Influenza is a pretty good survivor so my guess would be that this disease will be an ongoing problem in dogs. We really are going to have to wait and see.”
