When I first read about a new “dog flu” in the news a few weeks ago, it didn’t seem that I should worry about my dogs contracting this new Canine Influenza that some racing greyhounds had contracted last year in a few scattered states.

But then the news articles started becoming more alarming since I read that several boarding facilities in nearby Westchester County, New York, had dogs that contracted the yet unnamed dog flu.

When I visited my vet last week and asked, “What’s up?” she handed me the official paper from Cornell University asking all vets that had dogs exhibiting symptoms of the dog flu – coughing, high fever, thick nasal discharge – to take a blood sample and send it to the vet school for analysis.

The problem with this flu is that the symptoms mimic those of the more common Bordatella or “Kennel Cough.” The difference is that kennel cough is a bacteria that can be treated with antibiotics with great success and not too much discomfort with the dogs. And there is a vaccine that most dogs get annually.

This new dog flu, which jumped species from horses, is a virus and there is no antibiotic to treat it, no vaccine to prevent it and in anywhere from one to 10 percent of cases can be fatal to the dogs. It can lead to pneumonia and only when the dog becomes that sick from that will the antibiotics begin to help an animal with this disease.

In the News

The following two news articles also caught my eye. Please read them and look for future press reports about this and how it might affect your dog.

According to the New York Times on September, 27, 2005, “The scientist, Dr. Cynda Crawford, an immunologist at the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine and an author of a report on the canine influenza being released today by the journal Science, spoke at a news conference sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to a paper published in the September 26 issue of Science Express (Vol. 309, No. 5743), the online version of Science magazine, this is the first time an equine flu virus has been found to jump species.”

According to the Cornell University News Service, “The equine influenza virus, H3N8, was isolated at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine after University of Florida researchers sent fluid and tissue samples from greyhound race dogs that had died from a respiratory illness at a Florida racetrack in January 2004.”

Ed Dubovi, director of the virology center at Cornell’s Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory, where he isolated the virus from the University of Florida samples, said, “Of all animals, dogs have the most intimate contact with humans on a daily basis, so the potential for human infection has to be in the back of our minds.”

Still, he added, there is no evidence of the virus jumping to humans and there is no expectation of it doing so. It is possible the equine virus has been infecting dogs for some time, although the symptoms are very similar and could be mistaken for common “kennel cough,” a bacterial disease related to pertussis (whooping cough) in children.

Nevertheless, the paper cautions that the newly discovered flu virus must be closely monitored.

With close to 100 percent of dogs exposed to the virus becoming infected and about 80 percent of infected dogs showing symptoms, the flu could be spreading throughout the country. It was originally documented in greyhounds at tracks and kennels but now is infecting all breeds of dogs. Ongoing testing is being done to track the spread of the virus to different regions of the country.

“Right now, we have a major outbreak of this disease in all breeds of dogs in New York State,” said Dubovi, noting that symptoms can include high fever and a respiratory infection that lasts a few weeks, although one to five percent die from related hemorrhagic pneumonia.

From January to May 2005, outbreaks occurred at 20 racetracks in 10 states (Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, West Virginia, Kansas, Iowa, Colorado, Rhode Island and Massachusetts), according to the paper.

“This infection will become a major concern for all dog owners, since 100 percent of dogs are susceptible to infection by this virus,” said Dubovi. “With 50 million pet dogs in this country, even if you have one percent mortality, this is going to result in a number of dogs dying from it.”

Be aware of what is happening with your dog, pay close attention if any symptoms show up and contact your vet immediately.

Lisa Peterson, a long-time breeder of Norwegian Elkhounds, is the Director of Club Communications at the American Kennel Club. Contact her at ask@lisa-peterson.com  or Dogma Publishing, P.O. Box 307, Newtown, CT 06470.