Never a simple story: West Nile in California
Orange County CA is currently experiencing a major outbreak of West Nile infection in people. Since January 94 cases have been confirmed, three of which were fatal, representing nearly a quarter of the...
View ArticleEbola: precautions and paranoia
Awareness is good. Being proactive is wise. Being paranoid? That’s another story. As this unprecedented Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa continues to expand, many people in North America have...
View ArticleLyme disease & ticks: New infosheet
The latest Worms & Germs infosheet, all about Lyme disease and ticks, is now available on the Resources – Pets page. Although it’s getting colder and occasionally snowy up in Ontario, there are...
View Article2013 US rabies recap
It’s that time of year. No, not for snow (although it is snowing here at the moment). It’s time for the annual US rabies surveillance report in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical...
View ArticleUS dog importation and rabies vaccination
I’ve written a lot lately about importation of pets and associated infectious disease issues. A recent paper in the journal Zoonoses and Public Health (Sinclair et al, Dogs entering the United States...
View ArticleOAHN Podcast on Rabies for Ontario Veterinarians
The new Ontario Animal Health Network, developed as part of the OMAFRA-UofG partnership under the Disease Surveillance Plan (DSP), has produced a number of podcasts on important topics for...
View ArticleDeworming wild and feral animals
I had a question the other day about roundworms in feral cats. Specifically, how do you deworm a group of cats that you don’t handle and may not be able to catch? There are a few possible approaches,...
View ArticleMad Cow in Alberta
Last week the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced that a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), more commonly known as Mad Cow Disease, was found in an Alberta beef cow. BSE...
View ArticleWhite House antibiotic resistance action plan
The White House has released a "National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria". This follows on the heels of "Executive Order 13676: Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria" which...
View ArticleMore dog travel issues
Importation issues, Part 1 A Facebook post was forwarded to me the other day. It reads “Drove to the airport today to pick up this lovely little girl [puppy] who flew all the way to Montreal from Baku...
View ArticleCats, Toxoplasma and mental health (with a side of over-exuberant reporting)
There’s been a lot of discussion about toxoplasmosis and mental health over the past few weeks in response to a paper in Schizophrenia Research (Torrey et al 2015). Some internet sources are having a...
View ArticleA near fatal dog lick?
I like to write about interesting papers that appear in the medical literature. A problem with that is that it’s often weird cases that get published. So, it’s important to keep things in perspective....
View ArticleReducing antibiotic use in the real world…easier said than done
I did a consultation today about a dog that shows some of the practical challenges of reducing antibiotic use. It was an older dog with a test result that could be consistent with an infectious...
View ArticleCraigslist + rabid puppy = bad news
There are lots of reasons not to get a puppy from Craigslist. While getting a rabid one isn’t likely, it can happen and result in a lot of trouble. Case and point…A litter of 9 puppies from...
View ArticleCraigslist rabid puppy update
The other day, I wrote about an effort to track down adopters of puppies from a litter in the Clay County, Texas, area after one of the puppies was confirmed to be rabid. At last report, 8 of the 9...
View ArticleFall Fair Fowl Factsheet – Biosecurity for poultry at shows
Poultry biosecurity is an important practice to limit the spread of disease. There are many viruses, bacteria and parasites that exist that can cause disease in birds. These can spread by direct bird...
View ArticleResistant Staph in Animals Conference
I realize this is outside of the scope of most readers (so let me apologize in advance for some wasted electrons), but here’s a quick announcement of the 4th ASM/ESCMID Conference on...
View ArticleNew US CDC dog importation information
CDC has released a new dog importation poster along with an updated importation page on their website. Rules are still pretty lax (but stricter than in Canada), but more effective communication never...
View ArticleCPHAZ symposium presentations online
Presentations from the 2015 Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses (CPHAZ) Symposium are now on YouTube on the Worms & Germs Blog channel. There is a wide range of talks, including topics such as...
View ArticleRabies socks
When I saw “rabies socks“, my first thought was “someone’s going to be cursing their autocorrect“. Apparently not. The Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians (OAVT) Rabies Response Program...
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