Hookworm stubbornly persists across U.S.July 16, 2020Rockford, Ill., is the number one city for hookworm in June, the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) reports.
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Alert service aims to contain deadly diseaseJune 26, 2020Nonprofit group Pet Disease Alerts has launched a subscription service to notify veterinarians and pet owners about local outbreaks of Leptospirosis.
Hookworm rampant across U.S.June 24, 2020Des Moines, Iowa, is the number one city for hookworm in May, the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) reports.
Orange, Calif., ranked top heartworm city for SeptemberSeptember 13, 2019Orange, Calif., is the number one city for heartworms in September, the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) reports.
Moreno Valley, Calif., top heartworm city for AugustAugust 16, 2019Moreno Valley, Calif., is the number one city for heartworms in August, the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) reports.
Sioux Falls, S.D., tops list of heartworm cities for JulyJuly 15, 2019Sioux Falls, S.D., is the number one city for heartworms in July, the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) reports.
Alexandria, Va., tops list of heartworm cities for JuneJune 19, 2019Alexandria, Va., is the number one city for heartworms in June, the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) reports.
Dogs can alert human risk to Lyme diseaseMay 27, 2019Health-care providers can now use dogs as a way to measure human risk for Lyme disease, according to a study by Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC). "This research shows how man's best friend continues to safeguard humans as a sentinel to alert humans where they are at greatest risk for Lyme disease," says CAPC executive director, Christopher Carpenter, DVM. "The model established in this research breaks new ground to give residents, travelers, and health-care providers a county-level map to help them identify areas of risk across the country." Through the study, researchers quantified the relationship between canine seroprevalence for the disease-causing bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, and Lyme disease in humans. Seroprevalence is used to calculate the number of dogs testing positive among all tested dogs within a county. The study showed a correlation between human incidence and dog seroprevalence. According to researchers, they were able to study more than seven years of nationwide canine diagnostic data as a result of dogs being tested annually for exposure to Borrelia burgdorferi. The collected data represented more than 400 million data points, which is usually difficult to obtain when looking directly at ticks and the environment. "By combining sophisticated statistical modeling with this …
Salem, Ore., tops the list for heartworms in MayMay 17, 2019Salem, Ore., is the number one city for heartworms in May, according to Companion Animal Parasite Council's (CAPC's) top 10 list. The list reflects positive heartworm test results from the last 30 to 45 days. The following are the U.S. cities with the highest percentage increase in positive heartworm tests for May: 1) Salem, Ore. 2) Dover, Del. 3) Charleston, W. Va. 4) Norfolk, Va. 5) Amarillo, Tex. 6) Port St. Lucie, Fla. 7) Rochester, N.Y. 8) Visalia, Calif. 9) Vancouver, Wash. 10) Albuquerque, N. Mex. According to CAPC, pets on May's top 10 cities list could have been exposed locally or through travel. Factors such as transportation of shelter dogs, pet owner compliance in administering monthly heartworm preventatives, changing weather patterns, and mosquito microclimates may be the cause for the increase in positive tests. "Most people consider their pets as family members and wouldn't knowingly expose them to infection with a potentially fatal disease that ultimately compromises the length and quality of their lives. Yet millions who fail to protect their pets every month from heartworm infection are doing just that," says Craig Prior, DVM, past-president of CAPC's …
New CAPC study shows Lyme disease is spreadingMay 7, 2019Research from the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) indicates seroprevalence of Lyme disease in dogs is not only increasing in the Northeast, where it is considered endemic, but also spreading into areas that were previously thought to not be at risk for this serious, zoonotic tick-borne disease. ("Seroprevalence" in this case refers to the prevalence of dogs exposed to Borrelia burgdorferi, the pathogen responsible for causing Lyme disease in the U.S. based on serologic tests—hereafter referred to as "prevalence.") Study results were published in the December 2018 issue of Environmetrics, the official journal of The International Environmetrics Society (TIES). This milestone study, titled "A Large-scale Spatio-temporal Binomial Regression Model for Estimating Seroprevalence Trends," suggests canine prevalence rates for Lyme disease are rising and that those rates are increasing most in areas where the pathogen has recently encroached. Specifically, exposure in dogs to B. burgdorferi is rising in states not traditionally considered to be areas of high Lyme risk. Significant increases in the percentage of dogs testing positive for exposure have also been seen in areas that have not yet reported significant human incidence. These findings suggest canine Lyme prevalence could serve as an early warning system for changes in …
