[sweetpea]

There's a new virus spreading rapidly around the US canine population, with a 1-10% mortality rate. It's related to the equine flu virus. Dogs have no natural immunity, so almost every dog exposed will catch the virus, and 80% will show symptoms, which are similar to kennel cough.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/22/national/22canine.html

I'm worried this will affect the ability of my dog Silas to come to New Zealand with me in December.

[Tara Sage]

I hadn't heard about dog flu :(

I hope you can bring Silas with you I will keep my fingers crossed for you

[blue]

Thanks for putting this up on the board. It makes scary reading hopefully though it should of sorted its self out by the time you come out. Not heard of it in other countries is there any other info on it?
Thinking of you and Silas it must be very worrying for you.

[Jonathon1977]

One more thing to worry about. As crazy as this sounds if I could not bring my Pogo I would reconsider the move altogether. I hope this new germ does not change policy.

[Debbie P.]

I don't think that's crazy at all - if I couldn't bring my cat, I definitely wouldn't come. He's part of the family.

Keeping my fingers crossed for all you US-based dog owners.

Debbie

[sweetpea]

I hope this new germ does not change policy.

Yep. Without being alarmist, worst case scenario, MAF could suspend dog imports from the US. That said, the virus is also spread by humans -- humans don't catch the disease, but they are carriers and can infect dogs. So maybe, hopefully, MAF will decide that a) the disease isn't serious enough to take action; and/or b) banning US dogs wouldn't be likely to keep the virus out anyway. We'll see.