Leptospirosis Makes A Comeback In The Big Apple

By Amy Fernandez

Sometimes it feels like life’s become one giant, endless festival of weird diseases. Okay, maybe that’s an overstatement but Covid has spawned plenty of unexpected repercussions. For instance, the abrupt shutdown of restaurants throughout the five boroughs had one particularly unsavory, unanticipated consequence. Deprived of their usual source of tasty trash, the city’s rat population literally migrated to new territory. If they couldn’t eat out, they opted for home cooking. Recent headlines about rats waltzing down Park Avenue were indicative of their brazen forays into residential neighborhoods.

It’s more than a nuisance. Rats are disease vectors and we’ve got quite enough of that for now, thank you. Among other things, they are prime carriers of leptospirosis, which for the abovementioned reason, appears to be making a comeback in major urban areas, including New York.

We’ve had sporadic outbreaks before, but generally lepto remains rare outside of warm, damp climates. The fact that it’s bacterial rather than viral also magnifies the problem because lepto bacteria can remain viable for an astoundingly long time under the right conditions. Although it’s generally transmitted via infected wildlife it also crops up in urban areas thanks to rodent infestations. And that’s the new twist. Rodents are endemic to every urban environment but normal measures usually keep a lid on that. But a bunch of unprecedented developments in the past 18 months have literally brought them out of the woodwork.

Although leptospirosis can be controlled through vaccination there are some gaps in that approach. The lepto component of DHLPP vaccines does not protect against every known strain, such as some that are spread by livestock. And as most CC readers know, many owners prefer to avoid it because it has been associated with adverse reactions to that shot.

So, on to the third crucial factor in this recent outbreak…the dog park. Among the few positive results of this pandemic experience has been the tremendous uptick in dog ownership. As millions of new converts discovered, nothing compares to canine company when life sucks. And day and night, dog walking has become a social ritual for millions.  So far, so good.

Communal dog recreation is wonderful in theory, but in practice, it’s always a disaster waiting to happen. Owners don’t always comprehend the nuances of canine behavior, so there’s the fighting and bullying. Aside from that, any epidemiologist will confirm that it’s an ideal environment to spread pathogens. And since this one is spread via infected urine, it’s impossible to install effective preventative measures. (In this case, Meet and Greet should be re-titled Meet and Pee.)

This perfect storm came together in McCarren Park, a lovely big green space in upscale Williamsburg. A January 30 story in The Times gave official status to months of local buzz leading the NYC Health Department to temporarily close the dog run.

As The Times noted, “Reported cases of leptospirosis among people increased fairly drastically last year, a spike that is believed to be linked to the rise in the rat population.” That’s the other delightful aspect of this deal. Although there are no cases of dog to human contagion, this is an equal opportunity disease. In other words, the CDC pays attention. Locally, there were 15 confirmed human cases and one death in the past year–normally there’s two or three. Even though this is not matched by any canine infection rate (thankfully), keep in mind that typical leptospirosis symptoms aren’t always diagnosed. Plenty of other stuff is associated with gradual deterioration of liver and kidney function. Thanks to ongoing vaccinations, it has become so rare that many vets don’t even think to routinely test for it. And although vets are supposed to report every confirmed case, they work on the honor system in that respect.  Even so, according to the CDC, reported cases in dogs have also clearly increased.

In keeping with Covid news, there’s no clear path out of this mess. But, you might want to consider including the lepto component in your dogs’ next routine vaccinations.

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Posted by showresults on Feb 9 2022. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.