AR-News: (UK) Pet passports lead to surge in dogs dying from foreign diseases

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

news.telegraph.co.uk

By David Harrison and Rosie Dunn
(Filed: 16/05/2004) 

A growing number of British pets are catching deadly diseases on foreign 
holidays as more animals travel with their owners on the "pets' passports" scheme 
introduced four years ago.
The School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool said that reported cases of some 
animal diseases picked up on holiday had doubled since 2002.
Last year 37 pet dogs - almost half of the 84 tested at the school - were 
found to have leishmaniasis, an incurable disease passed on by sandflies in 
Mediterranean countries.
The figure is more than double the 17 dogs that caught the disease on 
holidays in 2002. Symptoms include weight loss, eye disease and kidney failure.
Other diseases that have shown increases of about 100 per cent include 
babesiosis and ehrlichiosis - blood diseases spread by ticks - and heartworm, a 
parasite passed on by mosquitoes.
Brian and Jean Coleman, from Tyneside, were shocked and heartbroken when 
Hamie, their much-loved West Highland White terrier, died after contracting 
babesiosis when they were on holiday recently in south-west France.
"He was only 16 months old and had brought so much joy into our lives," said 
Mr Coleman, 55, a retired teacher.
Hamie was "perfectly fit and healthy" last month when the Colemans left to 
spend the Easter holidays at their cottage in the Dordogne.
The dog became seriously ill, however, shortly after the family returned home 
to South Shields and, after developing distressing symptoms, was taken to a 
vet and put on a respirator.
"We knew Hamie couldn't go on like that and that we had to tell the vet to 
stop the respirator," Mr Coleman said. 
"It was awful. I never thought we would lose our little friend in such a 
terrible way. We were shattered by his death."

full story:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/16/npet16.xml&sSh
eet=/news/2004/05/16/ixhome.html 


______________________________________________________________________ 
for the news items that Animalconcerns 
volunteers have entered on the site
go to the Animalconcerns.org main page 
and click on "More News Headlines."

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````------

    "The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those 
rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of
tyranny. - Jeremy Bentham 1748 - 1832 
The question is not can they REASON, nor can they TALK, but can they SUFFER?" 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/attachments/20040515/66b78ae3/attachment.html