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By Allison M. Heinrichs

TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 7, 2007

A 1-year-old Jack Russell terrier is the area's first fatality from a deadly strain of canine influenza that is sweeping the country and has taken hold in three other cities.

The dog died of the disease at the Animal Rescue League of Western Pennsylvania. The Larimer shelter this week stopped taking in or treating dogs until the highly contagious outbreak is over.

"It's influenza, so it's like somebody getting the flu in that the dog will have sneezing, coughing, nasal discharge, be lethargic and look like they have a cold," Donna Hughes, medical director at the animal shelter, said Tuesday. "It can turn into pneumonia, which can be fatal."

Four other dogs at the shelter had to be euthanized because they developed such severe cases of pneumonia that they likely would have died, Hughes said. Twenty-three dogs at the shelter are infected and are being treated.

"If it's in the shelter, that means it's out in the community," said Cynda Crawford, a veterinarian and assistant scientist at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine who helped discover the virus almost two years ago. "Canine influenza doesn't spontaneously erupt in the shelter. It's a community-acquired infection."

Because there is no vaccine for the disease, no local dogs are immune, Crawford said. About 80 percent of dogs exposed to the disease develop symptoms, and 8 percent die, she said.

So far no cases outside the shelter have been confirmed in the region, said Joni Sarakon, president of the Western Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association.

The disease is spread when dogs cough, sneeze or lick each other. People who pet or play with an infected dog can spread it to other dogs if they don't thoroughly wash their hands. But humans and other animals can't catch it.

Treatment includes administration of intravenous fluids and antibiotics because the disease makes dogs more susceptible to secondary infections.

Dogs are most contagious before they display full-blown symptoms and some dogs never display symptoms, making the disease difficult to avoid. If a dog starts coughing or has flu-like symptoms, its veterinarian should be called immediately.

There have been sporadic reports of infections in dogs in 25 states, including Pennsylvania. However, it seems to have taken hold only in the Denver, Miami and New York City metropolitan areas, said Edward Dubovi, director of virology at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine. He was the first person to isolate the virus in dogs and is tracking its spread through the U.S.

"If it's aggressively treated, the mortality rate is low," Dubovi said. "However, that is for the virus as it is now. There is no guarantee that it will not build virulence, just as we fear avian influenza will. We have no idea how this virus is going to evolve in the face of a completely susceptible population."