In late July 1980, a 5-month-old Doberman puppy started vomiting blood in Washington, DC. The dog was one of many pets to contract parvovirus, a new disease that year, and died the next day at a veterinary hospital. “This is the worst disease I’ve ever seen in a dog,” said a local veterinarian. washington postin Article explaining regional spread of infection. The animal’s owners were in disbelief as it died so quickly.
The world was in the midst of a dog pandemic. Parvovirus, first identified in 1978, can survive outside the body for months and can be spread not only from animal to animal, but also through feces and small amounts of excrement on the soles of people’s shoes. Entering the dog’s owner’s yard. The virus quickly traveled across countries and continents, infecting thousands, perhaps millions, of dogs in the late 70s and early 80s. Colin Parrish, a professor of virology at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, said essentially every dog alive at the time was infected with the virus. And countless people died. A single Associated Press report in August 1980 The city of Chicago said it had lost 300 dogs by July of that year, and South Carolina said it had lost more than 700 dogs in just two months.
A vaccine was quickly developed, but doses were in short supply, so the epidemic continued for years. Puppies are now routinely vaccinated against parvovirus, and the 1978 canine pandemic has faded from the public consciousness. Since then, no outbreaks of this magnitude have occurred, even though dogs have become increasingly integrated into American households. Few people stay up at night worrying about what will happen if a new devastating disease emerges. But for a moment late last year, it seemed like that might be the case.
In late 2023, veterinarians began to notice that something was wrong. They were seeing an increase in cases of dogs with respiratory conditions that don’t respond well to antibiotics.some people would quickly develops severe pneumonia and die. Soon, suspected cases of the disease began to appear in states across the country. Around Thanksgiving, the media began warning dog owners about a “mysterious dog disease” that was spreading across the country.
Many experts now suggest that perhaps there was no “mystery dog disease.” Perhaps several previously known diseases were spiking around the same time. Still, the case is far from over, and dog owners are scared and excited at the prospect of a deadly new disease. “How worried should we be?” Could a family pet’s seemingly normal cough actually be more dangerous?
And if a new disease had caused the world’s first modern canine pandemic in nearly 50 years, it’s not entirely clear what would have happened next. Unlike humans and livestock, companion animals lack a sophisticated and coordinated infrastructure dedicated to disease surveillance and management. The technology and science may exist to combat a canine pandemic, but how we respond depends on what kind of disease we are facing and whether it can also be transmitted to humans. Depends on whether it is possible.
Dogs don’t interact with each other as much as humans, so their infection networks are different from ours. They see each other on walks, at daycare, or at the dog park. While some may travel interstate or even countries, many just stay in their own backyards. Their closed networks make it difficult for some viruses to move between networks. In 2015 and 2016, a nasty epidemic broke out. Canine influenza called H3N2has been tracked to have been introduced into the United States from South Korea only once, but it never reached full pandemic status. “I remember seeing so many sick dogs on a daily basis,” said Steve Valeika, a North Carolina veterinarian and infectious disease specialist. “And it stopped right away.” Most of his cases were from one boarding facility.
Diseases like parvo can be transmitted without direct contact and are more likely to spread widely. But even then, authorities could have acted quickly, perhaps even more quickly than in 1978. The same mRNA tools that led to the rapid development of coronavirus vaccines for humans could be used for the canine pandemic. Since parvovirus, our ability to test dogs for the disease has improved. Information travels very quickly on the Internet.
Still, as companion animals, dogs and cats find themselves caught in the awkward space between systems. “There is no CDC for dogs,” Vareika said. “It’s all a patchwork.” Animal diseases are usually managed by agricultural agencies, in this country the Department of Agriculture. However, these groups are more focused on livestock outbreaks such as swine flu that threaten food supplies, the economy, and human safety. If an outbreak occurs in companion animals, veterinary associations, local health departments, and other canine health organizations can all help manage it.
For example, the dairy and pig industries are much more collaborative. “It would be easy if they said, ‘We should get all the players together to discuss this new emerging infectious disease problem with pigs.’ will answer the phone,” explains Scott Weese, professor of veterinary infectious diseases at the University of Guelph in Canada. Organizing such a conference call on canine diseases would be even more difficult, especially in a large country like the United States. And while USDA isn’t designed with pets in mind, “it doesn’t mean they don’t care or aren’t trying,” he said. (The Department of Agriculture did not respond to requests for comment.) No one officially monitors the disease in dogs, the way government agencies and other organizations monitor outbreaks in humans. Basically, monitoring requires testing, which is expensive and may not change the veterinarian’s treatment plan. “How many people would want to spend $250 to get a swab test?” Parrish asked.
Dogs are not humans. However, they are close to humans, and during a canine pandemic, it’s easy to imagine that owners will go to great lengths to keep their pets safe. Their access to us in this way may help us protect them. It also comes with its own risks. If a fast-spreading dog disease were to infect humans, another machine would kick into gear.
If humans could become vulnerable and certainly did get sick, the CDC would be involved. “Public health usually takes the lead in areas where there are human and animal aspects,” Weese told me. These groups are better funded, better staffed, and have more expertise, but their priority is us, not our pets. The uncomfortable truth about zoonotic diseases is that culling or killing animals helps control their spread. In 2014, after a Spanish health worker contracted Ebola, authorities killed her dog Excalibur. as a preventive measureDespite petitions and protests. When the woman recovered, she was devastated. (“I’ve forgotten everything except the death of Excalibur,” she later told CNN.) Countries routinely culling thousands of livestock in response to deadly disease outbreak. If a new dog-borne pathogen were to threaten human lives, the United States would have to choose between killing infected animals or dedicating resources to quarantine them.
It is difficult to imagine a scenario in which an owner would stand by and watch their dogs being slaughtered en masse. People truly love their pets and consider them family members. Many people will go out of their way to save their dog. But even if humans were safe, the systems we have built may not be able to prevent pet deaths on an alarming scale. There is already a shortage of veterans nationwide. In the event of a dog health emergency, people will want access to emergency medical care and equipment such as a ventilator. “We don’t have enough information to deal with a large-scale pet-related pandemic,” said Jane Sykes, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and founder of an international association. I am concerned that this may be the case.” He taught me about infectious diseases in companion animals.
Congress ordered the CDC, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of the Interior, which oversees wildlife, to work to strengthen “federal coordination and cooperation against threats related to diseases that can spread between animals and humans.” , said Colin Basler, deputy director of CDC One. The health department issued an emailed statement. If a new deadly dog disease emerges, experts will almost certainly be called upon to respond in some way. And in the midst of all that chaos, pet owners may be left in a temporary information vacuum, worrying about the health of their little four-legged creatures with cold noses. The specifics of the pandemic story vary depending on how quickly the disease progresses, the severity of the illness and death, and how quickly, but in almost every scenario, someone is scared for their pet and unsure of what will help them. It’s easy to imagine the moment. It will come, and how quickly it will come.
