Pure Dog Talk

Trafficking in Deadly Diseases from Foreign “Rescues” Our guest blog post today is from Nancy Melone, with additional information about the deadly diseases arriving with foreign "rescues." Thank you for this outstanding research Nancy! Protecting North American Dogs from Imported Disease Pathogens: The Cases of Dog Flu and Distemper* By Nancy Melone, PhD, ThornCreek Bernese, Reg’d. and Eendenkoi Kooikerhondjes Abstract: Protecting dogs and people from imported disease pathogens is a difficult and never-ending task requiring international cooperation and continued vigilance. The recent cases of dog flu and distemper offer vivid examples of the costs, both financial and emotional, of failure to responsibly import animals. This article describes the obstacles to such protection and the process of tracking and identifying unknown pathogens using dog flu and distemper as examples. Protecting companion animals in the US from infectious organisms brought in by imported companion animals is not easy. Unlike the