I remember being in a meeting years ago and hearing an estimate of the number of deaths of people from Hurricane Katrina that were linked to them staying behind because they could not evacuate their pets. People chose to ride out a devastating hurricane rather than abandon their animals – animals that weren’t part of the evacuation plans. I can’t remember the number, but it floored me. Many people died because they wouldn’t leave their…

Rat bite fever is a bit of a niche disease but one that I talk about a fair bit because it’s often missed, or at least diagnosed a lot later than it could (and perhaps should) be.  It’s not an issue with technology or testing – it’s an issue of human behaviour and failing to ask a simple question. Rat bite fever is a bacterial infection caused mainly by Streptobacillus moniliformis. This bacterium lives in…

For this blog, I focus my writing on companion animal issues, but our group does much more than that, and a recent study of ours is worth a post here as well. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a huge issue globally. It’s a classic One Health problem with important human, animal and environment aspects, and it’s getting a lot more attention now as it’s become a genuine crisis.  We know we need to reduce and improve…

Click here to download and read an open letter from a large group of University of Guelph faculty concerned about COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. With freedom comes responsibility. That applies to academic freedom too. It should not be used to provide cover for misrepresentation and misinformation.…

Canine influenza is back in the news in the US, with close to 50 dogs infected with canine influenza at a dog rescue in Florida.  The outbreak has been going on for over two weeks already.  This is a “surprising but not surprising” scenario to me. It’s a bit surprising because canine flu activity seems to have been really low to non-existent in the US lately. While there’s no formal surveillance program, I haven’t…

A brief report in the latest edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal describes a child with lymphadenopathy (swollen lymph nodes) due to cat scratch disease. I was a bit surprised to see a straightforward case like this published in such a journal, but it’s a good reminder of a few issues. Cat scratch disease is caused by the bacterium Bartonella henselae, and it’s a common (and probably commonly missed or misdiagnosed) disease.  The…

As I mentioned recently, we’re tracking anecdotal reports of increased respiratory disease activity in dogs in Ontario.  If you have observations or cases to contribute/report, please take a few minutes to fill out our short survey here: https://uoguelph.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eP6E6AzIiJfnDlY Infectious respiratory disease is endemic in dogs everywhere, so there’s always some disease activity going on. Sometimes we see what are likely true outbreaks, caused by either by our usual suspects or by something we haven’t…