Our May editorial highlighted the greatly increased demand for pet dogs during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as some of the consequences such as behavioural problems, rapidly increasing costs of dogs and even a surge in dog thefts because pets have become such a valuable commodity. The rising incidence of these crimes has led to organisations, from Dogs Trust to the Metropolitan Police, issuing advice on how to minimise the chances of pet theft.
The supply of puppies in the UK depends on registered breeders and casual breeders allowing their family pet to have a litter. Although, the latter are somewhat of a rarity now with the successful promotion of neutering. In normal pre-pandemic times, the supply of UK bred dogs is not sufficient to satisfy demand. In the current climate, where the demand for dogs is at an all-time high, we are not even coming close to supplying enough home-grown dogs. As a consequence, the importation of dogs has become a big business. This can be done both legally and illegally and there is little way of knowing the true number of animals being unofficially imported in to the UK.
Romania is by far the leading source of commercially imported dogs and official numbers have increased from around 19500 dogs imported in 2019, to nearly 30000 in 2020. The next highest number of dogs imported came from Spain, at around 5700 dogs. A growing concern to UK vets is the potential for the importation of ‘exotic’ diseases and parasites. Many UK practices will already have experience with cases of leishmaniosis, which is not infrequently found in dogs that have come from Spain or Greece.
The current and more pressing concern centres on cases of Brucella canis. The UK is officially a Brucella-free country, but it would appear that the disease is endemic in Romania and its neighbouring countries such as Moldova, Bosnia and Macedonia. Up until 2020, B. canis was a sporadic and rare finding in the UK. Since the summer of 2020, the Animal and Plant Health Agency has now been notified of over 40 cases of B. canis, prompting the Chief Veterinary Officer of England Christine Middlemiss to write to the Veterinary Record in order to highlight the situation.
Brucellosis is a zoonosis. It is also difficult to diagnose as the clinical signs are not pathognomonic and infection can be subclinical. There is no doubt that the reported cases are only a proportion of the infections present in the UK. Brucella canis causes reproductive failure in dogs but can cause a variety of other signs, especially lameness or spinal pain, as discospondylitis is one of the presentations. The organism is spread in semen, vaginal secretions and urine. The concern for human health is such that several laboratories are now requesting the travel history of dogs when potentially infectious samples are received. The European Scientific Counsel for Companion Animal Parasites have also renewed their calls for the screening of imported dogs for significant zoonoses.
The UK now has the opportunity to change its regulations on animal imports and it would be good have some legislative action introduced before we start to see the human health consequences of what began as an increased demand for pet dogs.