2023-08-31 06:35:09
A few weeks ago, in July, Wolfy, 7, a Siberian husky dog with boundless energy, died in just a few hours of Aujeszky’s disease, a viral pathology that primarily affects wild boars and pigs, and which is not transmissible to humans. “The previous days, we had walked in turn, in the forest of Coti, near the water basins at Eccica-Suarella and Renoso. I don’t know where he caught the virus.”confides with emotion Marylin Russo, its owner.
She remembers hiking with her dog for the last time on a Sunday and, “Monday night he came into my room moaning and scratching his nose. Then he went into the garden to scratch against the trees. He drooled a lot”.
Marylin immediately calls the veterinarian on duty. Wolfy is hospitalized and put on a drip. At 8 o’clock in the morning, the verdict falls. “‘Your dog is doomed, he has Aujeszky’s disease. There is no cure’. I picked him up to take him to my usual vet. But he died when I arrived, in my arms. Everything happened so fast. The shock was very violent”.
No remedy or solution
An autopsy will be performed shortly thereafter. It confirms the diagnosis of the veterinarians. Marylin has the sanitary obligation to have her four-legged friend cremated. The case is considered by veterinarians to be rare. Because, by definition, it is the hunting dogs, likely to ingest raw meat from suids, which are the most exposed to the virus. “It is transmitted mainly through hunting wounds, when dogs attack dead or alive game, or during feeding, when hunters give raw boar meat to their dogs.“, summarizes Ambre Pierre, veterinary assistant, responsible for the rural, within the clinic of the Valleys in Ajaccio.
The risk also comes from a walk in the forest during which the dog comes across an infected pig or wild boar carcass. The rest of the story will be tragic. “There is no cure or solution for a dog affected by the disease. The animal feels intense itching at the point of entry of the virus, on the lips, on the paw if it has been bitten. It will scratching until self-mutilation.Very quickly, a paralysis of the larynx will appear, as well as hypersalivation and respiratory problems, a bit like during rabies.On the other hand, the dog is not aggressive as it could be. “to be if he had contracted rabies. Death occurs after 36 hours”, develop the professional.
Boars are luckier. In them, the disease most often goes unnoticed because, “they are healthy carriers of the virus”. This is not the case with pigs. Once infected, they present with fever, cough, discharge, vomiting and brain signs such as convulsions and tremors. The mortality rate is higher in piglets less than two weeks old. “This porcine disease transmissible to dogs, identified as early as 1902, is transmitted between suids, directly, by mating, from snout to snout, through the mother’s milk or indirectly through buildings and food.“, explains Ambre Pierre. As a general rule, the spread of the disease is favored by “the massive presence of wild boars around pig farms”.
Vaccination campaigns for pigs
To prevent Aujeszky’s disease from surfacing on farms, the veterinary services, in collaboration with the chambers of agriculture and the Corsican agricultural and rural development office, are focusing on prevention. This takes the form of regular vaccination campaigns – every six months – across the island. The protocol, for each breeder, includes primary vaccination and reminders. The vaccine used comes from Italy. “Vaccination against Aujeszky’s disease is normally prohibited in France because mainland France is considered free for pigs. The vaccine is not marketed in the country. This vaccination is possible in Corsica due to the enzootic status of the island vis-à-vis the virus“, says one within the veterinary technical group of Corsica. The injection of the product to dogs is excluded.
To date, the only Auskipra BK vaccine is likely to be used in dogs. However, it requires a temporary authorization for use.
In this health context, information and compliance with a few instructions are of life-saving importance. You don’t give raw meat to your dog, you keep an eye on it during walks, you don’t pick up a wild boar carcass, you don’t go near it either.
For their part, island hunting federations do not hesitate to sound the alarm to their members. “We make, including on our site, a communication on the subject to the heads of beats who then pass on the information to the owners of dogs“, underlines Ange-Dominique Manenti, president of the federation of hunting of Corse-du-Sud. To prevent the risk of contamination, the federations also finance “waste pits, 10 per year on average. This is to prevent the carcasses and viscera of wild boar from being thrown into the wild or scattered everywhere by birds of prey and foxes”. Two species totally insensitive to the virus.
1693470330
#Health #Aujeszkys #disease #dog #killer #virus #rages #Corsica