Vector borne diseases – Part II

Fleas, ticks and mosquitoes can be more than just a pesky nuisance. In fact, these pests can also be major carriers of many potentially serious diseases that can affect both humans and our beloved dogs. A variety of so called “vector-borne diseases are spread from one host animal to another by these annoying little pests, which act as carriers. They potentially transmit disease each time they bite and feed on a host animal, such as a dog or even a human.

As you become more vigilant about protecting your furry friends from these parasites, it’s helpful to know you are also decreasing the risks related to the specific diseases each vector can carry.

TICKS

Ticks start from an egg and then go through three life stages and in order to survive, they must have a blood meal at every stage. Most ticks can feed on all kinds of mammals (some even on birds, reptiles and amphibians too!), and many ticks need to find a new host at each stage of their life.

Like mosquitoes, saliva from the tick enters the host at the site where the tick is feeding. In this way, disease is both ingested by the tick, and potentially transmitted to other host animals.

When a tick feeds it can remain attached for several days taking in a blood meal. The tick does not immediately transmit a disease when it attaches, this takes some time, although the amount of time can vary for different disease agents. This is an important point, because treatments that kill ticks when they feed on dogs need to work quickly enough to prevent a disease from getting transmitted to the dog.

There has been a great deal of population growth and movement among tick species. For example, the brown dog tick was previously found mostly in the warmer Mediterranean areas, but over the past few years has moved north into Europe. This tick can become established inside buildings and survive through colder months protected from the winter weather.

The Asian longhorned tick may have entered the US unnoticed during transport while feeding in the external ear canal of dogs. Its particular reproductive ability means that only one female tick entering the country is enough to start a new population.

MOSQUITOES

Female mosquitoes bite and suck blood. They need the protein in blood to develop eggs. When a mosquito bites, it not only sucks blood, but also secretes saliva and when this occurs, the saliva enters your blood. If the mosquito feeds off an infected animal or person, it can then pass infection along to other creatures because mosquitoes take multiple meals from multiple sources.

Mosquito population growth has increased the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. These diseases can now be found around the world, not only in areas once considered to be of high mosquito risk, such as subtropical and tropical regions.

HEARTWORM DISEASE (DIROFILARIASIS)

Heartworm is not found in the UK and rarely found in South Africa. It is a threat that dogs travelling to Central and Southern Europe and further afield might be exposed to. It is a potentially fatal disease that starts when a mosquito infected with larval parasites bites a dog. The juvenile parasites enter the dog through the mosquito bite wound and start the cycle of infection. In dogs, these worm larvae mature into adult worms in the heart and nearby blood vessels, potentially leading to heart and lung failure. The mature heartworms reproduce and new infective stages of the worm, called microfilaria, enter the blood stream, ready to infect another mosquito when it feeds. This infection rarely spreads from mosquitoes to people.

Rickettsia

Tick bites also potentially expose both dogs and people to a broad range of small bacteria that belong to a group called the Rickettsia. Currently, these are mostly a threat to travelling dogs that visit mainland Europe and beyond, although with the increased tick risk and environmental changes the local UK threat from these diseases may change in future. These include organisms that cause a variety of diseases:

• Ehrlichiosis
• Anaplasmosis

SANDFLIES

Sandflies carry the protozoal parasite Leishmania infantum which causes the disease Leishmaniosis in dogs and sometimes in humans too. These blood-feeding flies  are a potential risk for dogs travelling to Central and Southern Europe.

SCREENING FOR VECTOR-BORNE DISEASES

Screening may be done by your vet if he/she suspects your dog has a vector borne disease, usually through a blood smear which is then analysed under a microscope. There is still a lot to learn around how soon a dog will test positive for the disease after becoming infected; the types of clinical signs an infected dog will develop; when to expect clinical signs; and why some dogs never show any signs of infection. Additionally, some dogs can continue to test positive for many years after becoming infected; this is seen for ehrlichiosis for example, and this can complicate the interpretation of a positive test as a recent change or an infection that happened some time previously.