First reported UK case of likely dog-to-dog transmission of leishmaniosis. Not usual route for this potentially fatal infection, which can also be passed on to people

Veterinary professionals have sounded the alarm in this week's Vet Record after treating the first UK case of a dog with the potentially fatal infection, leishmaniosis, that is thought to have been passed on by another dog, rather than by travel to an area where the infection is endemic. Canine leishmaniosis is caused by the parasite Leishmania infantum, carried by the female sand fly and transmitted in its bite. It is zoonotic, so can be passed on to people. Dogs have been known to pick up the infection after being bitten or wounded by another infected dog. But up to now, this has not been reported in the UK, where cases to date have been associated with blood transfusion, breeding programmes, or overseas travel.

... Junior Vice President of the British Veterinary Association (BVA), Daniella Dos Santos, comments: "Anyone looking to get a dog should consider adopting from a UK rehoming charity or welfare organisation instead of rescuing from abroad," she recommends, "as the unintended consequences from trojan dogs can be severe for the health and welfare of UK's pets and, in some cases, humans too."

Full article HERE

When we lived in Italy our dogs were vaccinated against this.   (now sadly passed  over the bridge) Worrying that it is now in the uk. Will vets now have to begin vaccination here do you think?

I have worried about the dangers of importing rescue animals from foreign climates for some time - especially the illegal imports.

Legal "foreign"rescue dogs have to be fully health tested including Leishmaiosis to be able to come to the UK, pet dogs don't

> Legal "foreign"rescue dogs have to be fully health tested including Leishmaiosis to be able to come to the uk

testing is not that reliable for leishmaniosis, dogs can have a very low parasitic load at the time of testing leading to a false negative and still carry the disease into this country

> ... Junior Vice President of the British Veterinary Association (BVA), Daniella Dos Santos, comments: "Anyone looking to get a dog should consider adopting from a UK rehoming charity or welfare organisation instead of rescuing from abroad," she recommends, "as the unintended consequences from trojan dogs can be severe for the health and welfare of UK's pets and, in some cases, humans too."

I so agree with this.

I am so against this fad for importing overseas rescue dogs, not a private person falling in love with a dog while living abroad and bringing it home, but rescues/people shipping dogs over for adoption here.

It artificially ups the rescue numbers, making it appear we have a bigger problem than we have, so supporting the anti breeding people.

>Legal "foreign"rescue dogs have to be fully health tested including Leishmaiosis to be able to come to the UK, pet dogs don't

Yes, but are still allowed into the country even when proven to be infected.

Is this not one of the risks we took when removing the need to quarantine and allow pet passports ?

If these diseases become more common having to consider more vaccinations if available for our dogs would be a sad exchange imo

You know this personally or from the media ?

I have noticed that the local rescues to me are consistently full of UK bred bull breed & bull breed crosses, apparent non bull types UK bred never stay long & visually UK bred pedigree breeds fly out of the door. So where do people go to find non bull type pets ?

Now another stick to beat the"foreign" dogs with.

The title of this thread is slightly incorrect isn't the article
"First reported UK case of likely dog-to-dog transmission of leishmaniosis"

The second dog that died belonged to owner's that had been in in an area in which the sand flies are common.

The dog had never travelled outside of the UK, or beyond the borders of Essex, where it lived. But its owners had lived in Spain and travelled to the Jalón Valley (between Alicante and Valencia) without their pet in the summer of 2018.

Interesting articles here &
here

Looking at rescues around here ,London, although bull breeds are overly represented there are many other dogs often mixed breeds and greyhounds . There are also breed rescues too
Ignoring for now foreign rescues which at least should be tested forsome of.these disease surely the bigger risk is pet dogs and as previously  said the illegal imports ?

I have thought for a long time that apart from the disease risk, surely there are enough dogs to rescue here without importing them! The number that come in from Ireland certainly inflate our figures.

Pity the dog lover who does not want a bull breed type or designer dog bred for money & dumped in rescue, many UK rescues refuse people dogs if they work at all even if they can take their dogs to work, if they have children of any age etc etc. One refuses people dogs/ cats if ALL other animals( ie different species)are neutered & insist on all their are neutered at the rescues home kennels by the time they are 6 months, if they are not already neutered. The dogs in these rescues don't face a death sentence & don't face going days without food & being slaughtered when their time is up.

How many rescue dogs do you have sourced from UK rescues ?? or do you only have pedigree dogs

For years we have been told breeding is bad as there are dogs needing homes in rescue.

Now this message is artificially bolstered by dogs being imported from Ireland and now places like Romania.

There are not individual dogs brought in by the new owner but by rescues, touting adopt don't shop.

Then good breeders are castigated for daring to breed.

As for non bull breeds, surely people can choose a breed and wait for a puppy from a good breeder, or even a retired adult, or returnee for re-homing. Each breed has it's own Breed rescue or many branches, as sadly so many commercially bred ones fall through the breeder responsibility net.

There are of course still occasional accidental or deliberate crossbred litters.

No such thing as an accidental litter-never even had a negligent mating in over 60 years of owning dogs & bitches. Yes I spay my bitches when they are mature physically & mentally, but until this happens they are entire. I don't castrate my dogs, the alleged pros are far outweighed by the cons for males. My dogs don't go roaming in search of bitches.

If ALL breeders were responsible, breeding to improve their particular breed, there would be far less dogs of any type in rescue, sadly too many breeders breed for gain(especially from poor quality dogs).

Having read the full article( thanks to my lovely vet)lots of assumptions & lack of scientific proven facts. Hence the title LIKELY not proven.

Yes pet owners could find a breed that perfectly fitted their lifestyle, book a puppy from fully health tested & quality parents( after a 5 year search for one friend of mine)then wait for years for the perfect puppy to be born in to a perfect world.

Sadly we don't live in a perfect world, the want it now society we live in means impulse buys still happen & dogs continue to be dumped.

All dogs in the UK are supposed to be microchipped & records upto date, but hundreds of dogs are being picked up as strays & put in rescue that are not chipped or chip not registered or records out of date. All the owners breaking the law. Nothing to do with"foreign" rescue dogs.

There aren't 1,000s of rescue dogs coming in daily/weekly from abroad(including Ireland), there are 1,000s of puppy farmed/byb/pet dogs being bred week in week out. Near me a legal puppy farm with over 200 bitches being bred ever season & then passed on to rescues when they have finished being bred from, records are falsified as to the number of litters from it bitch & close breedings done. How many of the products of similar places end up in rescue ??

What happens to dogs in public kennels in Eastern Europe, Spain, Portugal & Greece ? They live in worse conditions than puppy farms & are killed anyway the staff want to.

Education is needed across the board, corruption sort out & punished to even make a dent in the over production of dogs the whole world over

One would assume that the Junior Vice President of the British Veterinary Association (BVA) knows what she is talking about and if she says: "the unintended consequences from trojan dogs can be severe for the health and welfare of UK's pets and, in some cases, humans too." then I think we need to sit up and pay attention. It's not rocket science after all is it. Dogs coming in from some countries do pose an added risk and will bring things in to this country that have not previously been here. This is the price we pay for the end of quarantine.  You may not agree but everyone is entitled to their own opinion and everyone is more than welcome to offer that opinion.

we can sit up and take note but lets hope those who have the muscle can do something . The risk was always there but it depends how bigger risk the government think it is and more likely how much it will cost . We do have tendency to bolt the gate after the event