DOG-KILLING VIRUS IN OHIO

The cause of this aggressive dog disease is not clear yet, but everything seems to point to a cirovirus.  Some dogs seem immune to it, while others suffer quick symptoms and succumb to the disease in as little as 48 hours.  Efforts are being made to identify the virus. 

SEATTLE TIMES - The Ohio Department of Agriculture said it has received calls from veterinarians and anxious dog owners throughout the state who are concerned their animals might have contracted a new virus that can kill in as little as 48 hours from the onset of symptoms.

 

Pathologists think they may be dealing with a “circovirus,” and are awaiting test results, Hawkins said Thursday.

 

Circovirus is a novel virus (meaning one not seen before) from “a family of viruses that has not been known to cause disease in dogs prior to this year,” said Dr. Melanie Butera, a veterinarian and owner of Elm Ridge Animal Hospital in Canal Fulton, Ohio. She was the first area veterinarian to report to state officials that she saw possibly as many as four canine patients with the ailment two weeks ago.

 

“What made these cases unique is what the pathologist terms ‘acute necrotizing vasculitis.’ This is when the blood vessels become suddenly damaged and fluid begins leaking out of the vessels,” Butera said. “Because of this, the cases I know of did not just have vomiting and bloody diarrhea, they also developed fluid around their lungs and in the abdomen.”

Read more -  http://seattletimes.com/html/pets/2021772165_dogvirusxml.html

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OHIO.COM - A mysterious illness that has killed one local dog and sickened several others has been linked to a virus that killed several dogs in California in the spring.

 

The Ohio Department of Agriculture is expected to release additional information Monday confirming that early test results indicate the virus found in the tissue of the dead dog is consistent with circovirus, a disease more commonly seen in pigs.

Read more -

http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/virus-linked-to-illness-that-has-sickened-several-ohio-dogs-1.426633

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2420451/Mysterious-illness-killing-Ohio-dogs.html

RELATED

Pig circoviruses:

VIROLOGY BLOG - Porcine circoviruses are small, icosahedral viruses that were discovered in 1974 as contaminants of a porcine kidney cell line. They were later called circoviruses when their genome was found to be a circular, single-stranded DNA molecule.

There is some evidence that circoviruses might have evolved from a plant virus that switched hosts and then recombined with a picorna-like virus.

 

Virions are shed in respiratory and oral secretions, urine, and feces of infected pigs.

 

Other circoviruses may cause diseases of birds, and chicken infectious anemia. There are also circoviruses that infect canaries, ducks, finches, geese, gulls, pigeons, starlings, and swans.

Read more - http://www.virology.ws/2013/03/19/circovirus-in-shanghai/
 
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Link to this post - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/09/dog-killing-virus-in-ohio.html


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