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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/health/30flu.html?_r=1&ref=science
The USDA has approved the first new vaccine to protect dogs from the H3N8 flu virus.
The virus evidently first jumped from horses to dogs about five years ago and is particularly lethal for canines with a pushed-in nose, like a pug.
Scientists believe the virus circulated in horses for decades before a series of mutations spurred the jump to dogs. Among the canines that are infected, five percent die. And that's a high rate. The deadly 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic killed two percent of its victims.
When Dr. Crawford began studying it in January 2004, it had come to her notice as a mysterious cough and pneumonia that killed a third of the greyhounds at a Florida dog track. By the next year, she had found it in seven states and had shown that it could be passed by dogs who just rubbed noses on the street or shared a water dish, and that humans could carry it on their clothes.
It has now been found in 30 states, but almost exclusively in settings where dogs live closely together: shelters, pet stores, kennels and dog schools. Because the owners of these establishments have learned to turn away sick dogs just as school principals facing swine flu send home sick children, the disease’s progress has been slowed.
Just as obesity has proved dangerous to human flu victims because of the weight on their chests, being bred to have a short, bent respiratory tract is dangerous for dogs.
“It really puts a strain on their ability to breathe,” Dr. Crawford said. “They can’t move air in and out of their lungs.”
The USDA has approved the first new vaccine to protect dogs from the H3N8 flu virus.
The virus evidently first jumped from horses to dogs about five years ago and is particularly lethal for canines with a pushed-in nose, like a pug.
Scientists believe the virus circulated in horses for decades before a series of mutations spurred the jump to dogs. Among the canines that are infected, five percent die. And that's a high rate. The deadly 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic killed two percent of its victims.
When Dr. Crawford began studying it in January 2004, it had come to her notice as a mysterious cough and pneumonia that killed a third of the greyhounds at a Florida dog track. By the next year, she had found it in seven states and had shown that it could be passed by dogs who just rubbed noses on the street or shared a water dish, and that humans could carry it on their clothes.
It has now been found in 30 states, but almost exclusively in settings where dogs live closely together: shelters, pet stores, kennels and dog schools. Because the owners of these establishments have learned to turn away sick dogs just as school principals facing swine flu send home sick children, the disease’s progress has been slowed.
Just as obesity has proved dangerous to human flu victims because of the weight on their chests, being bred to have a short, bent respiratory tract is dangerous for dogs.
“It really puts a strain on their ability to breathe,” Dr. Crawford said. “They can’t move air in and out of their lungs.”
