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Dog Disease Likely to Spread, Vet Warns; Canine Flu Infected 950 Greyhounds at Dairyland Park in Kenosha

Posted on: Saturday, 24 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

A new canine disease that closed Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha for four weeks earlier this year will likely spread to domestic dogs and eventually infect wild canines such as coyotes and wolves, a top animal researcher predicted Friday.

The disease, a form of influenza, has killed dozens of dogs in six other states, but none died at Dairyland during an April and May outbreak that infected about 950 dogs, said Jenifer Barker, a veterinarian with the state Division of Gaming.

"We didn't lose one, and we're very proud of that," Barker said.

There is no evidence that the disease, first diagnosed last year at a Florida dog track, can be transmitted to humans or that it has spread outside of Dairyland, Barker said.

"The hardest part of this disease is convincing people that this is real," Barker said.

The School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin- Madison has tracked the disease for more than a year.

"It's just a matter of time before the disease gets out into the general dog population and then into the wild canine population," said Ronald D. Schultz, a dean at the school.

The school surveyed kennels and shelters throughout the state this summer and found no incidents of infection other than at Dairyland, Schultz said.

"I think it bears out the fact of how well things were handled here in that it was contained here and dealt with here in a proper manner," said Bill Apgar, Dairyland general manager. "I think an excellent job was done here in the handling of these greyhounds."

Geneva Lakes Kennel Club escaped the outbreak, Schultz said.

Infections were mostly confined to dog tracks in Florida, Massachusetts, Arizona, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Texas and Iowa. The track in Jacksonville, Fla., lost two dozen greyhounds to the disease, and a track in Iowa lost more than a dozen, Barker said.

Other known outbreaks have happened at dog kennels in New York and New Jersey, Barker said.

Doesn't have to be reported

Detecting the frequency of canine influenza in Wisconsin is hampered because it is not a disease that must be reported to the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, the agency that oversees the state veterinary office, said Donna Gilson, a department spokeswoman.

County and local health departments also do not monitor outbreaks of dog disease.

"We really don't have any eyes or ears out there, but when there's an outbreak we ultimately hear about it," she said.

Barker, who watches the health of Dairyland greyhounds, said she expected the disease would eventually arrive at the track because dog owners travel from track to track with their racing animals.

Dogs have no natural immunity to the influenza, which often is mistaken for kennel cough, another respiratory affliction, Schultz said. The disease is believed to be a mutated form of influenza that infects horses, he said.

Symptoms spread rapidly

When about a dozen dogs began coughing in late April at Dairyland, Barker began taking blood samples and treating them with fluids and medicines. The symptoms spread rapidly through the kennels, and 30 dogs spiked high fevers and came down with pneumonia, she said.

One dog had a temperature of over 106 degrees, which is 4 to 5 degrees above normal, she said.

Barker launched an intensive training program for Dairyland dog trainers on recognizing disease symptoms, which include fever, coughing, gagging and nasal drainage.

Schultz called the disease an "emerging virus" that will sweep through the canine population as the Parvo virus did in the late 1970s, killing thousands of dogs with untreatable diarrhea.

Copyright 2005, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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