MILLBROOK, N.Y. (AP) -- A parasitic disease
rarely found in this country has killed 21 foxhounds and has sickened at least 20 others,
prompting the national fox-hunting organization to cancel events. The disease can also
affect humans.
One after another, the hounds at Millbrook Hunt
in Dutchess County became lethargic. Losing weight and patches of hair, the dogs developed
enlarged joints, crusty skin lesions and rope-like knots underneath their skin.
The culprit was identified this spring by
researchers at North Carolina State University as a strain of leishmaniasis, typically
found in warm, coastal areas like Brazil, the Mediterranean, India and the Sudan.
Normally transmitted by sand flies, the disease
is considered curable in humans, but it has killed people in other countries. It has
rarely been diagnosed in the United States.
Among foxhounds, the disease has been found in
kennels in 20 states and Canada, but only the Millbrook hounds have died.
``This should not be in the U.S.,'' Edward B.
Breitschwerdt, professor of medicine and infectious diseases at North Carolina State, told
The New York Times. ``We're truly dealing with a foreign animal disease that remains very
unclear to all of us still.''
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
is testing people who have come into contact with the foxhounds in Millbrook and
collecting samples from 10,000 dogs around the country.
While 12 percent of the 9,000 hounds tested so
far have shown some blood-test evidence of infection, only 1 percent have been confirmed
as being infected, said Dr. Peter Schantz, a veterinarian and epidemiologist in the CDC's
division of parasitic diseases.
The Millbrook dogs started dying a year ago.
This spring, the Masters of Foxhounds
Association, the sport's national governing body, canceled all fox-hunting events and
urged kennels to quarantine leishmaniasis-positive dogs.
``We're being super-cautious, because nobody
knows all the answers,'' said Dennis Foster, the organization's executive director. ``If
there's any question, we don't do it, that's our philosophy.''
The Times said the disease probably came to this
country when an American soldier returned from overseas with an infected dog. The disease
was diagnosed in several soldiers during the Persian Gulf War, the newspaper said.
North Carolina State University: http://www.ncsu.edu
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov
Leishmaniasis Page - http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/HTML/Leishmaniasis.htm
Masters of Foxhounds Association: http://www.mfha.com
UPDATE Canine Leishmaniasis
Cases Are Confirmed In 21 States
Aug. 25, 2000 -- Results of DNA and blood tests
obtained by scientists at North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine
and the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have confirmed cases of
visceral canine leishmaniasis -- a rare, often fatal tropical disease that can be
transmitted to humans and other animals -- in 21 U.S. states and southern Canada. The test
results suggest leishmaniasis is substantially more widespread in North American canine
populations than originally thought.
"We have a very serious disease that leads to
chronic debilitation and kidney failure in dogs, and can lead to their death.
Unfortunately the disease is extremely hard to diagnose," says Dr. Edward
Breitschwerdt, professor of small animal internal medicine at NC State, who helped lead
the research effort to facilitate more widespread testing for leishmaniasis after
diagnosing the disease at a New York hunt club last spring.
Until researchers determine how leishmaniasis is
transmitted in the United States, the threat to human health is not completely known,
Breitschwerdt says. Direct contact transmission would pose a far smaller risk than
transmission by insects like sand flies or ticks. That mode of transmission, Breitschwerdt
says, could create a public health concern.
Leishmaniasis is a parasitic infection and most
often occurs in rural areas of the tropics and subtropics, where the most common species
of the parasite is transmitted by the bite of an infected female sand fly. Symptoms of
leishmaniasis include skin lesions, nose bleeds, swollen lymph glands, weight loss,
seizures, hair loss, kidney failure and swollen limbs and joints.
The disease is potentially fatal in humans, but
can be treated. While there is no cure for leishmaniasis in dogs, it can be put into
remission.
Breitschwerdt says leishmaniasis is prevalent in
southern Europe, India and South America, but, until very recently, was not thought to be
present in the United States. "I think there is the possibility that there could have
been human cases in the United States that weren't diagnosed," he says. Ongoing
research efforts should allow scientists to determine the source of the U.S. canine
Leishmaniasis, how it's being transmitted, and if the cases in different states come from
the same strain of the organism.
Breitschwerdt and his colleagues implemented the
new diagnostic tests at the College of Veterinary Medicine last spring in response to a
disease outbreak among foxhounds at a New York hunt club. When foxhounds at the club began
losing weight and suffering from skin lesions, seizures, swollen limbs and joints, and in
most cases fatal kidney failure, the club's attending veterinarian turned to veterinary
medicine researchers at NC State for help. Using the DNA and blood tests, Breitschwerdt
and his team were able to confirm that the disease was canine leishmaniasis.
The NC State team has been collaborating with the
CDC, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Dutchess County (New York)
Department of Health to investigate the New York Leishmaniasis outbreak.
In conjunction with the CDC, they've tested
foxhounds from other regions and identified canine leishmaniasis in 21 other states,
including North Carolina, and southern Canada. "So we've gone from an outbreak in New
York to literally a national epidemic that's probably been smoldering for 15 to 20
years," Breitschwerdt says. It's still not clear how the dogs in New York became
infected.
Breitschwerdt's research and testing team is made
up of more than a dozen NC State students, clinicians, pathologists and other researchers,
including Dr. Michael Levy, professor of parasitology; Dr. Amanda Gaskin, internal
medicine resident; Dr. Adam Birkenheur, graduate student; and Lindsay Tomlinson, pathology
instructor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by North Carolina State
University for journalists and other members of the public. If you wish to quote from any
part of this story, please credit North Carolina State University as the original source.
You may also wish to include the following link in any citation:
