Are you ready for the dog and cat flu?

Welcome to the world of influenza, a virus with a dazzling ability to mutate, cross species, and in general stay one step ahead of the immune systems of mammals and birds – including human beings and our family pets. From my column today on SFGate.com:

The first cases in pets were reported in ferrets, which are notoriously prone to influenza viruses. But when the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) reported last month that a sick cat in Iowa had the disease, epidemiologists and virologists took notice. It was the first time a cat had become ill from an influenza virus.



Since then, two more sick cats, one of whom died, tested positive for H1N1, and Chinese officials announced Saturday that they had isolated the virus in two sick dogs.



Dr. Tony Johnson, a clinical assistant professor at the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine, said that it doesn't look like our pets are a risk to us.



In fact, we're a risk to them -- every cat that's been diagnosed with H1N1 lived with a human who had a respiratory illness shortly before the cat became sick.

H1N1 made history as the first influenza virus to make a cat sick, but the real history was made five years ago, when canine influenza was first identified in racing greyhounds in Florida.

The H1N1 outbreak isn't the first time an influenza virus has adapted to be able to cause illness in a dog, however.That occurred in 2004, when an equine influenza virus, H3N8, was identified as the cause of a deadly outbreak of respiratory disease in racing greyhounds in Florida.



Woody, a flat-coated retriever, is a healthy adult dog today, but when he was just a puppy in Texas, he came down with what his breeder thought was "kennel cough," the dog version of a cold.



But what Woody had was something no one thought to look for, a brand new virus that posed a serious risk to very young, very old and immune-compromised dogs.



"He spent the next month at the vet school at Texas A&M, fighting for his life," said his owner, Gina Spadafori, who lives in Sacramento. "He survived, but he was weak and spent many weeks recuperating after that."



The bug that almost killed Woody was a viral changeling dubbed H3N8. Originally thought only to affect horses, it had adapted itself to be able to cause disease in another species, the dog.



Once researchers started looking for H3N8, they found dogs carrying the virus in 30 states (including California) and the District of Columbia, a wide distribution suggesting it had been spreading without detection for quite some time.

Read the rest here.



Update: H/t to reader Lynn for a correction here.

Comments

[Snoopys Friend]

"Dog owners concerned about CIV or H1N1 should keep an eye out for their early symptoms, such as a cough or nasal discharge. A dog with a fever of more than 104 degrees, lethargy, a green nasal discharge or difficulty breathing is at high risk of developing dangerous complications and needs immediate veterinary attention....."



I was wondering what symptoms to look for and read your article in the S.F. Gate (quote above) and so appreciate your research and insight. I only hope that good luck keeps me and my dogs illness free even though I know the odds are narrowing the more I read. Thanks for the great information.

[retrieverman]

I wonder if these can be transmitted by wild canines. Obviously, wolves and coyotes will be able to catch them.



But I wonder if others will become vectors for the disease.



A few years ago, a distemper outbreak happened that was caused by gray foxes (Urocyon).

[Christie Keith]

I think that wildlife getting H1N1 from humans is a stretch, but they can contract it from other wildlife, certainly -- it partially originated there, after all. However, I think this is currently primarily a disease of domestic animals and us.

[Snoopys Friend]

I read where Turkeys have it in Canada, but these are raised for food. Assurances that none of the Turkeys made it to the food chain now abound.



http://in.reuters.com/article/health/idINTRE59J55H20091020



The article stresses those who work with farm animals need to be vaccinated.

[retrieverman]

Where I live dogs and wild dogs meet each other often.



If a hound with the H1N1 met a wild coyote, it is possible that the coyote could get it from the hound. Then the coyote could give it to its family group and maybe other coyotes around its territory.



In Ethiopia, free roaming domestic dogs give rabies and other canine diseases to the endangered Ethiopian wolf.



So maybe I just live in an area where free roaming dogs are far more common than other areas of the country.



But it is something I do think about.

[Lynn]

Better reveiw history as this is certainly not the first time a cat has contracted influenza. When the Avian H5N1 was prevalent several years ago many cats contracted that as well.

[Christie Keith]

I didn't say "contracted." I said "caused illness." My understanding was that, although some cats did have positive antibodies to H5N1, presumably from eating dead infected birds, they did not have symptoms of the disease. BUT... I looked into this a bit further now, and see that some leopards and tigers developed symptoms after eating infected chickens, and one pet cat was found to have symptoms as well. Researchers were also able to induce symptoms in laboratory cats when they "experimentally inoculated cats with H5N1 virus intratracheally and by feeding them virus-infected chickens."



http://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2008/04/articles/animals/cats/cats-and-avian-influenza/



Looks like the cats beat the dogs after all, although not in North America and not on a large scale.



Considering how highly resistant to influenza viruses dogs and cats have always been, and it still seems cats are resistant to infection leading to illness through a normal transmission route (nasal), the fact that appears to be what's happening with H1N1 is still pretty momentous.



Anyway, thanks for the catch and the information!