BURGAW — Cases of canine parvovirus (CPV) are on the rise at the Pender County Animal Shelter, and following the discovery of a puppy infected with the virus, part of the building is now under a 2-week quarantine to prevent it from spreading.
Carolyn Moser, Pender County’s health director, said the rise of CPV cases shows the need of increasing county residents’ awareness of the importance of animal vaccinations.
“It’s a large amount of education that needs to be done in the community,” Moser said.
CPV, also known as Parvo, is a highly contagious virus that causes infectious gastrointestinal illness in puppies and young dogs; without treatment, it can be deadly.
“Part of what makes the virus so dangerous is the ease with which it is spreads through the canine population,” according to the American Kennel Club.
The shelter’s manager, Jewell Horton, said employees were completing their afternoon rounds on Thursday when they noticed the young dog had blood in its stool. Following protocol, the dog was tested and found to be infected with the virus. Moser said the quick reaction by Horton and her staff likely prevented the virus from spreading.
The shelter’s dog adoption area will be under quarantine until Thursday, October 3. Any dog adopted since September 18 is considered exposed, according to an announcement made Thursday on the shelter’s Facebook page.
“Parvo, especially for dogs under one year of age, is always a concern,” Horton said. “We have seen a lot more [cases] of it this year. I don’t know what is contributing to that. Before this year, I don’t think we’ve had Parvo in the shelter in the past five years. This has been an unusual year for it.”
The reasons are difficult to pin down, according to Horton — like if weather and climate conditions are more conducive to the spreading of the virus or whether people are not spending the money to vaccinate their animals. She said that veterinarians who work at the shelter have also seen a “huge increase” of Parvo cases this year and don’t know what is causing it.
According to Horton, the infected puppy was brought to the shelter, stayed in a stray dog holding area for three days, and entered the dog adoption section of the building on the fourth day when it began showing symptoms. Horton said dogs are only contagious when they’re symptomatic, and the most common incubation period — the period of exposure to the virus to the appearance of its initial symptoms — is seven to 10 days.
“He was obviously exposed prior to entry. He did not catch Parvo at our shelter,” Horton said.
Approximately 15 dogs are currently inside the quarantined area, according to Horton. Because the infected dog was showing symptoms inside the dog adoption area for such a short period, she said cross-contamination was unlikely.
“Compared to other places, [the quarantine] is hyper-vigilant,” Horton said.
She urged the region’s dog owners to vaccinate their pets, especially those under the age of one. Several days ago, she said, a man sold puppies from the back of his truck in Jacksonville and multiple buyers have since reported cases of CPV.
As more and more people take their dogs to parks and other social settings in the cooling fall weather, chances of the virus spreading only increase, according to Horton.
“With the amount of Parvo we’re seeing just in the shelter and on social media, I’d recommend that before you take your dogs to social settings, make sure they’ve got current Parvo vaccinations,” Horton said. “The sad thing about Parvo is that 99 percent of the cases are preventable with proper vaccinations. So when you see it like this, it’s because you’re dealing with an unvaccinated population.”
Horton has also heard reports of an increasing number of CPV cases in Bladen and Onlsow counties. Emily Flax, a spokesperson for Brunswick County, said there have been no CPV cases at the county’s shelter this year. The supervisor of New Hanover County’s animal shelter was not in the office Friday and couldn’t provide comment.
Mark Darrough can be reached at Mark@Localvoicemedia.com or (970) 413-3815
