Urgent warning to all pet owners as dog dies of killer human disease – the 10 signs to know
A PET dog has died after testing positive for bird flu, a health agency has said.
The dog from Ontario, Canada, was infected after chewing on a wild goose and developed symptoms and died.
An autopsy showed the dog’s respiratory system was affected, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said Tuesday.
“It is the only case of its kind in Canada,” the agency said in statement.
“Based on the current evidence in Canada, the risk to the general public remains low and current scientific evidence suggests that the risk of a human contracting avian influenza from a domestic pet is minor,” the statement read.
The virus has wiped out millions of birds worldwide over the last two years, but it also affects other animals including seals, otters, harbour porpoises and foxes
Just last month, the virus killed two dolphins in Devon and Pembrokeshire amid growing the virus could soon jump to humans.
It comes as experts fear the bug could mutate making it even more harmful to humans than it currently is.
The H5N1 strain already has a fatality rate of around 50 per cent among people – 870 people have been infected with bird flu in the past 20 years and 457 of these died
Scientists are calling on the Government to create a new bird flu vaccine before the virus learns to spread more efficiently among humans.
The 10 symptoms in humans to know
According to the NHS, the main symptoms of bird flu can appear very quickly and include:
- a very high temperature or feeling hot or shivery
- aching muscles
- headache
- a cough or shortness of breath
- diarrhoea
- sickness
- stomach pain
- chest pain
- bleeding from the nose and gums
- conjunctivitis