From the N.Y Times.......
September 25, 2005
Virulent Dog Virus Hits Area Kennels
By CARIN RUBENSTEIN
OSSINING
A NEW strain of influenza that began infecting dogs in Florida early
last year has recently struck hard in the Westchester area, forcing the
temporary closure of two kennels after more than 100 dogs being
boarded there became ill, veterinary officials say.
At least one of the dogs has since died. The two sites, Gracelane
Kennels in Ossining and a branch of Best Friends Pet Care in Chestnut Ridge in
Rockland County, have undergone decontaminatio n procedures.
Local veterinarians with experience in treating flu-infected dogs
are advising owners to be judicious about boarding their pets in the
near future, and resist taking them to crowded day care and grooming
facilities, dog parks or anywhere else that animals can come into close contact
with one another.
"I've been telling any client of mine who boards their dog to be
very careful," said Russell Katz, a Pelham veterinarian, who added that
he believes he has treated at least five dogs with symptoms of canine
influenza virus.
The symptoms mimic those of bordetella, a less virulent illness
commonly known as kennel cough, for which all dogs must be vaccinated before
they are boarded. Health officials fear that this similarity has
contributed to underreporting of the spread of the new illness, both locally and
nationally.
There is not yet any vaccine for the new virus, which is believed to
havejumped from horses to dogs last year. Nor has it yet been officially
named or detailed in the scientific literature. At this point, diagnosis
can be confirmed only through blood tests performed at the Cornell
University College of Veterinary Medicine, and results take as long as two
weeks
Dr. Katz suggested that before taking pets to grooming parlors or
dog playgrounds, owners "ask questions of other owners about whether the
dog has been kenneled." But he admitted that even such extreme caution
might ultimately be poinless, as dogs do not yet have any natural
immunity to
this illness.
"It will be really impossible for anyone to have a normal life with
a dog and avoid any contact with this virus," he said.
In his own practice, Dr. Katz added, any dogs with a cough will be
made to wait outside the waiting room, or in a far corner of it. He plans to
move them quickly into a treatment area, and afterward to make sure that
any surface they have touched is treated with bleach, to minimize the
possibility of exposure.
The researcher who first isolated the virus in greyhounds, Cynda
Crawford, is a veterinary immunologist at the University of Florida College of
Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville. She had been reluctant to talk
about the disease pending publication of a scientific paper on the topic,
she said, but relented last week because not doing so was bothering her.
"This is a new, emerging respiratory pathogen in dogs," Dr. Crawford
said, "and it is my job is to inform veterinarians of the threat." Her
ultimate goal, she said, "is to alleviate fear and panic among dog owners."
But that may be not be so simple.
About 80 percent of dogs infected with the disease will show
symptoms, Dr. Crawford predicted. These include "a moist, productive cough that
ends in a gagging response, that will persist for one to four weeks, despite
treatment with antibiotics or cough suppressants." Although
antibiotics have no effect on he virus itself, they may prevent secondary
bacterial infections.
"Some dogs develop a thick, yellow discharge from the nose," she
added. "A very few dogs will spike a high fever, between 105 to 107 degrees
Fahrenheit. They become lethargic and weak, with rapid, shallow
breathing. This is likely to progress to pneumonia," which is where antibiotic
treatment can help.
As many as 10 percent of dogs will die of the disease, she believes.
Bordetella, by contrast, is rarely fatal among adult dogs.
About 35 dogs boarding at Gracelane Kennels in Ossining appear to
have contracted the virus in late July, according to the facility's
owner, Bob Gatti. As a result, he said, all three kennel buildings were closed
during August, his peak boarding season. He says he lost about $35,000 in
revenue, with boarding fees for about 90 dogs a day, and spent least $1,500
on disinfectants and on paint, for the interior partitions and floors of his combination indoor-outdoor kennel.
Although he said he did everything possible to kill any leftover
virus, Mr. Gatti acknowledged that "it's not foolproof."
"I don't know if there's any kennel than can stop an airborne
virus," he said, adding that he would refuse to board any dogs that exhibit
symptoms, and would get them out of the building as quickly as possible.
Mr. Gatti estimates that he has spent $2,000 on veterinary bills and
antibiotics to treat dogs taken ill while boarding with him.
Glenn M. Zeitz, an Ossining veterinarian, says he has treated about
25 dogs infected with the virus, some from Gracelane, some from a nearby dog
park, and at least one from another kennel, which he refused to identify.
Two of the 25 have died; Mr. Gatti says neither of them was from his kennel.
The virus has also struck the Best Friends Pet Care facility in
Chestnut Ridge, sickening 88 dogs, about 15 percent of which required
hospitalizatio n, according to Debra Bennetts, a spokeswoman for Best
Friends, a chain based in Norwalk, Conn., with 42 locations in 18
states.
The facility was emptied of animals by Sept. 17, she noted, and the
staff
has since begun decontaminatio n. The company is mailing information
about
the new virus to 1,200 veterinarians who practice near the locations
of the
other 41 Best Friend facilities, Ms. Bennetts said.
The company's consulting veterinarian, Larry J. Nieman of Norwalk,
has also
sent a copy of an advisory notice, titled "Canine Influenza Virus
Detected
in Dogs in New York State," to 100 veterinarians in Westchester,
Rockland
and northern New Jersey. The statement was originally released by
the State
Division of Animal Industry on Sept. 9, Ms. Bennetts said.
Last week, the company began to clean the circulation system in
Chestnut
Ridge, replacing air conditioning filters, among other things, "to
ensure
there is no latent virus," said Ms. Bennetts. The kennel will not
reopen
until early October. However, as the scare was developing, on Sept.
8, the
company opened a new branch in White Plains for pet boarding,
training and
day care.
As for what became of the infected dogs, about 17 of those that fell
ill at Best Friends were treated at the Oradell Animal Hospital, in
Paramus, N.J., where one died and two were still hospitalized last week, according
to Kristi Gannon, one of 42 full-time staff veterinarians.
The cost of treating a dog can range from about $100, for antibiotic
protection, to as much as $6,000, if pneumonia develops, Dr. Nieman
said. Owners whose pets got sick at Best Friends paid expenses themselves,
the doctor said, because the illness was "not caused by the kennel, it's
caused by the kenneling of patients."
Kennel owners who have heard about the canine flu outbreak are
alarmed by the news, in part because their businesses rely on a reputation for
dog safety.
Karen Montgomery, manager of Canine Companions, a Pleasantville day
care and boarding facility that has not had any cases of the illness,
immediately began calling regular clients to warn them. One owner,
she said, came to remove a dog from the premises.
"I'm passing out the New York State advisory to all our clients, to
give them a heads up," Ms. Montgomery said, adding, "Dog owners are
concerned" and have been asking about getting a vaccine for the disease.
Scott Berry, 40, who left his German shepherd, Hannah, at the new
Best Friends facility in White Plains last week, was unnerved by the
thought that she could contract a virus. An engineer from Colorado Springs
who is in Westchester on business, Mr. Berry said that he had never boarded
his
dog before, and that with this current scare he might never do so
again.
That is not good news for kennels like Best Friends Pet Care.
After the Chestnut Ridge location is decontaminated, "we're
optimistic we won't see the virus again in that facility," Dr. Nieman said. "But that's just optimism."
