Distemper Raises Its Ugly Head Again…
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By Amy Fernandez
While everyone has been busy worrying about dog flu, guess what? Something brand new and even worse has crept in to jumpstart your anxiety levels.
We’ve all heard of distemper, but almost no one has ever actually seen a case. We can thank vaccines for that turnaround. Which makes it easy to forget how recently this insidious killer routinely wiped out 30-40% of America’s show dogs. Just so you know, there is no actual treatment. It has a 50-80% mortality rate, which doesn’t imply smooth sailing for survivors that frequently suffer irreversible neurological impairment and/or organ damage. But, thankfully, all that horror has become a distant memory since effective vaccines were perfected and became widely available after World War II. These days it has become so rare in domestic dogs that the majority of vets have never seen a case. Outta sight, outta mind, you might say.
But here’s the thing, unlike humans, pathogens never take time off. They are always hatching new survival strategies. This one initially grabbed headlines back in June 2018 when a previously unknown strain of distemper turned out to be the culprit in 26 raccoon deaths in Central Park. Initially dubbed “zombie raccoons” by the ever helpful tabloid press, the obvious possibility of a rabies outbreak led to an immediate CDC investigation. Rather than rabies, testing revealed an unusual strain of the canine distemper virus.
Now, although this was something new to NYC, a new strain of canine distemper had already been documented throughout parts of New England suggesting that it wasn’t so new after all. Research suggests that it’s been around since at least 2004 when it was initially identified in a dead raccoon in Rhode Island. It was worrisome, but showed no signs of spreading –for awhile at least.
Then last spring, the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation ended that delusional thinking. The bad news came via a study headed by Dr. David Needle, senior veterinary pathologist at the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Yes, there really is a Doctor Needle; get over it. His research team–in cooperation with Cornell and the University of Georgia–isolated, sequenced and analyzed DNA extracted from several foxes, skunks, raccoons, fishers, and mink that had apparently succumbed to distemper over the past two years. They came from a fairly wide range of Vermont and New Hampshire, which certainly indicated some spread of the virus.
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Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=177815
Posted by AnthonyA
on Feb 20 2020. Filed under Current Articles, Featured.
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