For those who don't know me, I'm Ian Wright. I am a practitioner in the UK in Sunny Fleetwood on the Lancashire coast in the north west of England. I got a A masters, in Liverpool in veterinary parasitology in 1997.

And then I was bitten by the the metaphorical book. And, I've done research in practise. And I'm now chair of ESCAP, the European Scientific Council for companion animal parasites.

We, are a sort of Europe spanning, non for profit. Parasite advice organisation. We have guidelines.

We have fact sheets. A sort of free, sort of, query, parasite, query service. All sorts of excitement.

We have maps as well, So if you go to our website, you'll find it all there. And you know, I'll be available if you if you have any questions about ESCAP, I should take this moment to, point out as well that, there is advertising here, which is associated. With the sponsors of this event and the webinar that, ESCAP does not endorse any individual, products.

We give, advice regarding parasites as a whole, their distributions, risk. Diagnosis, treatment and control. So without further ado, let's talk about factors driving, dog relocation and the parasites that they may bring.

A a really hot topic. I mean, we've had a question already about whether there should be more regulation, how concerned we should be, about dogs moving around Europe in and out of Europe. And the effects that that might have, I'm not sure I'm gonna have any 100% answers for you, but we can have a look at at some of the effects, that that movement might have.

So there's been lots of concerns. Lots of debate, I think across Europe, Certainly in the UK about the issues that we may see, with dogs relocated over large geographic distances. So we tend to think about the moving countries.

But these might also be regional changes, regional movements, within individual countries as well. So the main concern, certainly for the topics that we're looking at today would be dissemination of parasites. But also vector populations.

So ticks fleas catching a ride on dogs. And moving around Europe. But we must also remember that they spread, potentially viral and bacterial infections.

So perhaps, with this sort of being one example on the right here, you know, one of the big sort of, headline hidden issues in the UK surrounding dog importation has been the introduction of brucella canIs, in individual dogs affecting individual health. We, you know, very dramatic consequences for this poor lady. And her group of dogs, a relatively still relatively rare occurrence.

But because of the dramatic impact that that bacteria can have, you know, garnered a lot of concern. A lot of headlines, but equally likely, perhaps more likely that Leptis virus strains that are novel, to countries might be introduced by the movement of dogs. And that perhaps, you know, would gather less attention.

Might sort of sneak, under the radar. And another issue which I and we're not gonna cover here cos it's not my area of expertise, but one. That we need to be aware of is the behavioural issues that many of these dogs will have.

Because they're not going to have come from domestic situation. They're going to have been street dogs, rescue dogs from various circumstances where they're potentially going to have been traumatised, abused, or at the very least, not adequately socialised in Poppy. If we focus, on the parasites, themselves.

Then what effect does dog relocation have? Well, there's a number of effects it might have, and Eric has touched on these, but just to sort of summarise. Firstly, if we move a dog from one region to another, they may introduce parasites into vector populations or hosts that are already there.

So, Eric talked at at at some length about echinococcus multilocularis, which is a hugely important parasite across Europe where, you know, intermediate and definitive host reservoirs were just waiting for the parasite to be moved around. If we consider, vectors, though, then, you know, we might have ticks like Derma centre that aren't infected with bebes. Positive dogs come in and infect them potentially.

And that happened here in the UK, particularly again headline grabbing outbreak of Bessis in Harlow in Essex a few years ago. Heartworm, as Eric has mentioned you know huge mosquito populations. That potentially could harbour heartworm if that opportunity of contact with infected do infected dogs takes place, we might get wholesale introduction of parasites with their vectors.

So a good example of that being rif ophelus, often infected with a wide range, of pathogens in one go may be moved around by dogs. And even if conditions aren't suitable for the establishment of the tick, they very much like living in centrally heated homes. In homes where climate is relatively moderated for them and they can complete their life cycle.

Very quickly, we may see the introduction of parasites, into new, vector populations. So, you know, we can see the spread of some vectors, such as fora fruit flies that transmit Fala or eye worm. The the vector has spread.

Not because of dog relocation, but largely because of climate. And then as dogs have moved around, eye worm has followed, and then finally, we get introduction of parasites without their vectors. So leishmania positive dogs, deliberately and accidentally are being moved around Europe at a rapid rate, and those can be moved from endemic areas with sun flies to non endemic areas without sun flies, but still present, and still potentially capable of transmitting, the pathogen in other ways.

And as Eric has discussed climates, I like to think of as the fuel. So you know it. It's the dry grass.

That can potentially allow parasites to establish. And then, dogs. Dog movements can be the source of ignition, to allow establishment potentially to occur.

And we've seen, that climate can affect, vector survival time. It can affect, vector activity time. And it can also affect, the likelihood of establishment of new vectors.

Such as, say, ralli, or Forti of fruit flies. So let's start off with a few examples, that we could consider. So, first of all, let's consider leash mania in phantom, a significant pathogen of dogs and cats, and potential zoonosis as well.

Although zoonotic cases tend to happen where or almost exclusively where the sun fly is endemic. So currently leishmania is present, and sort of maintaining its populations in southern and Eastern Europe. And this is because it's largely limited by the sun fly vector.

So you know that that's sort of keeping it in those locations. But we're seeing infected dogs being imported both into Europe and also from endemic to non endemic countries within the European area. I think it's a little bit of a misnomer.

People move positive leash mania, dogs around knowingly, and, you know, with you know, perhaps more or less information about what management is going to involve. However, what tends to get missed is that leash mania can still be transmitted, without the sun fly vector. So in terms of, local transmission, temporary transmission, having leash mania dogs is not risk free.

So if we look at those various routes, that can be transmitted by vertical venereal transmission. And this is where a history is really, really important. So, you know, you may, have an untraveled case.

You may not be initially aware, that that dog has leash mania, you know, it has no travel history outside of the country. It's in, maybe non endemic country. But then we discover, that its mum or dad had leash mania, and that it's been transmitted that way.

And that history can very easily get lost. It can be transmitted through blood transfusion, and certainly here in the UK, there's no requirement to blood test dogs for leash mania before, blood transfusions are given. So, you know, accurate histories there awareness of which dogs are positive is really, really important.

There is some limited evidence it may be transmitted via dog bites. And also by open source. There was a case in the UK.

Probably a couple of years ago. Now, where a dog was living in a household with a positive dog, and became infected. And they think the route of transmission was because it regularly licked the open source of the positive dogs.

The other positive dogs. So, you know, that's a lovely thought, but that's probably the most likely way that it was transmitted. And we so far, there is absolutely no evidence that all the vectors can transmit leash mania.

But there are examples of tri trip Panos like T vivax, that have jumped vectors. So you know, if that has occurred, then there is at least the theoretical possibility in the future. That leishmania may get out of its five vector as well.

So these are all things that we need to consider. And certainly these known routes vertical venereal, blood transfusion can allow, temporary populations particularly say, in breeding establishments of leash mania. To establish.

So these are, escap maps. That Eric showed us briefly, this just to demonstrate. So the the dark green is where we've currently got leishmania endemic in Europe.

This line moves up and down Europe a little bit like the tide, seasonally in, say, mid France, but also seasonally present in parts of Eastern Europe. But what this is dramatic about this map is how many non endemic countries, cases of leach mania are being recorded. And this is because of the movement of dogs, and it just demonstrates how we need to be as clinicians.

Very, very aware that travel dogs may be positive may be carrying, leash mania. And this is also backed up, by this wonderful paper, Miro, Etta, from 2022. This was idex data.

So this is just, recorded tests for leash mania by IDEX and the percentage that were positive. No background information. They did a range of parasites.

We'll have a look at heartworm in a moment and no information on whether they were clinically affected, whether they have travel history. So this isn't country prevalence charts. In fact, in some ways, it it's the opposite.

It shows where, movements of dogs, are pudding parasites that you might not expect. So we can see a lot of positive cases being picked up in northern Europe. And that is almost certainly going to be because, of of dog relocation.

So dialer rus a heart worm, is also being moved around a lot, by positive dogs. It is mosquito transmitted, as we've heard, with those mosquito vectors present right across Europe and it's it's temperature, really, that is keeping it out of those countries. But climate is changing.

Climate is gradually warming. The movement of dogs into countries where heartworm isn't endemic if they're positive, is constantly putting pressure on those mosquito populations to become infected. And he's gradually moving that distribution line.

Heartworm is a zoonosis it's not particularly bad. Zen nosis. It's transmitted by mosquitoes to people, but it's get benign.

Lung nodules Probably rather give the scene a miss, but it's really the disease in dogs and cats, that we're most concerned about. And ferrets mustn't forget the ferrets. So, you know, it's important to be aware again that travelled dogs may be positive for heart when early detection really improves clinical outcomes.

For those individual dogs, and cats, and ferrets. So, you know, getting in there early, managing it, treating it early makes a huge difference. So again, this is ESCAP distribution map.

This one for heartworm, as we've seen ride up there in northern Europe. But we're seeing, cases being reported and untraveled cases being reported. Ride up, Eastern Europe.

So being found in in Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. So, you know, really, you know, sort of movement up there with increasing evidence of of some non travel cases. So, you know, we could see that line gradually moving westwards, but also gradually moving northwards.

And this is being seen perhaps most dramatically, in Eastern Europe at the moment. But I, I don't think that anybody, in any countries, even slightly north of this line, should be complacent. And again, this is the, distribution, map for the idex data.

So again, not a prevalence map, but just, the percentage of positive cases that are being reported by idex. And again, it throws up results that you might not expect. So we can see that there's a relatively, high percentage of positive cases in Gloucestershire in England.

Not being that far away from Gloucestershire in England that I'm pretty confident it's not endemic there. But what we do get is lots of queries through ESCAP about positive heartworm dogs in the UK. So far, all with travel history and the vast vast majority of them having been permanently relocated rather than, say, having gone on holiday, for a couple of weeks.

Another major effect that dog movement is having with heartworm that we need to be very, very aware of is the movement of heartworm, of macrocyclic, resistant heartworms. And this already has been recorded, a few times, around the world, mostly in the United States. So, we can see that there's an example here, of it having been moved into Canada from where it originated down in Mississippi.

So this is dogs with, resistant heartworm just being relocated to another part of North America and then that resistance being detected, fortunately being detected very early. And, we've seen a similar phenomenon in Europe. So we've seen our first case.

First confirmed case of drug resistance in heartworm in Europe. It was in Italy, but again, it was a dog that was imported from the Mississippi area. So that early that early recognition is really important both in terms of potential treatment, but also in terms of limiting spread, to endemic populations.

You know, in in endemic countries, like Italy, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe and the United States. I mean, what we're looking for really is lack of treatment efficacy. So, as as first line clinicians not suggesting that we should start cracking out our protocols for testing dogs for resistance with heartworm.

But just that early record that maybe a dog has been on a preventative treatment been imported. It just may not have worked so we shouldn't not test dogs just because they've been on a preventative treatment. That would be a profound mistake.

Be blasia calida. Again, as we've heard is the eye worm. You get some wonderful images that can really, really make your day in clinical practise if you get one of these.

But it's not so good for the dog. And if they establish, in countries, then through the fruit fly vector there is some zoonotic risk attached to this parasite as well. And we're seeing cases crop up in countries where we previously didn't think it was endemic on travel cases more and more.

And we're also seeing it in travel dogs. We see cases now regularly in in the UK, climate modelling of which we've heard a lot mass phobic people, suggests that climate is gonna be very, very favourable. For fruit fly, vector spread.

So it spreads. First, it's the fuel, and then the infected dogs come along and those populations of of fruit flies are exposed. And this is, a wonderful little climate model.

The little black rings are where, case where fruit flies have been found to have established. So you see that there are little pockets quite far north? Whether that's temporary establishment or permanent is more open.

Question. Whether they can transmit Fala or not is another open question. But the redder the zones, the more likely a future Forti, establishment and persistence than going through dark green to blue.

So, you know, unless you're hanging out in, you know, the more northern parts of Scandinavia or the Highlands of Scotland, it seems very likely that soon, Forti is going to be coming to a neighbourhood near you. And that means, that FIA might as well if we aren't very vigilant for picking it up early in, infected docks. Rif phalli sanguineous, is a tick of southern Europe and increasingly eastern Europe.

It likes a nice, warm, humid climate as well. Or, you know, warm. Certainly very warm.

So doesn't like northern Europe very much, but it can complete its life cycle very quickly. And it does like, centrally heated homes. You know where it can, be relatively protected from outside fluctuations in temperature and environment and all life stages will feed on pretty much anything that moves.

So there's lots of potential for disease transmission and for zoonotic transmission of things like, rickettsial disease, like Mediterranean spotted fever. So movement of dogs, if they have rif Sophal ticks, allow temporary establishments and pathogen transmission even if climatic conditions aren't favourable for its longer term establishment. And again, this is the, European map with the rif ophelus line.

I love that. I'll be, I'll be using that more often. So, you know, you would expect to find Rusal south of this line.

But what we're finding, temporarily or persistently is transmission of pathogens that you would expect rif forus to transmit all rife itself to be present. So, you know, again we need to be a little bit more cautious about how we interpret this line. But we also need to be very, very vigilant.

For rhos on, infected ducks. So those are some of the concerns surrounding the parasites. Now, perhaps, you know, we should look at the reasons for dog relocation because, you know, it's very, very easy, particularly for us as vets to you know, finger wag and say, Oh, people shouldn't be moving these dogs around, but there are clearly drivers that are making it happen.

So let's have a little look at some of those. So, you know, those drivers are adoption of rescue dogs. I put rescue dogs in brackets.

Because, you know, it is becoming in some countries, you know, something of a lucrative trade. But essentially the taking of dogs out of difficult circumstances and putting them in potentially better circumstances. There is, illegal trade.

I mean, quite considerable illegal trade and importation of dogs into different countries. That is, under the radar of, regulation that is put in place. We're still seeing lots of of pet travel.

Temporary movement of dogs. And we are seeing, for many reasons increased movement and relocation of humans. And where humans go, so do their pets.

So let let's consider adoption of rescue dogs. This is a highly highly emotive issue, and, you know, if you're bored, you know, this evening after you've had this wonderful day of webinars, just post something about a re about, relocated rescue dogs on social media and just watch it all. All ignite.

Probably doesn't matter what you've said. PE people are just waiting for the opportunity to start. But it is highly emotive, and often driven by a lot of good intention.

So the need for this is created by natural disaster. You know, so we can have, disasters, like, famously in the United States. Hurricane Katrina, cause the displacement and relocation of a lot of dogs, we can see street dog persecutions.

So, Eastern Europe, a lot of dogs would live quite happily on the streets, but there's a degree of persecution by a minority. Either, which makes, on welfare grounds. The need for relocation.

Quite strong. Canine meat trade. There's been a lot of publicity about that and trying to change attitudes in Asia.

But in the meantime, there are a lot of kennel dogs, who have been eaten to look forward to and, you know, then potentially, you know, people are gonna want to H them from that. And you know, there are strong cultural drivers for that in Asia. It's a complex issue.

But people just checking in on social media and seeing these caged food dogs are, you know, probably going to want to to try to do something to help. So lots of factors that may drive that, and, you know, with that comes this public desire. So, you know, in relatively affluent countries, you know, there's a lot of social media use.

There may be people with disposable, income, who are looking for a pet, or are looking to budget for that and want to get a dog from difficult circumstances. But also there's increased awareness. So social media has meant that people can see the plight of a lot of these dogs where they might not have been aware before and, as a result, desperately want to try and rehome them underlying this as well.

So this is all you know, above board. So dogs being legally mostly, with the correct paperwork being relocated, or being rescued and then sold, but in a in a legal fashion. But the background to all of this is a massive illegal dog trade in in Europe, so we need to consider when there this is there.

There's this big push, You know, this big drive, to bring in legislation and compulsory requirements that in some cases say for Ayo coccus multilocularis in some countries has been highly effective. It's only as effective as your your enforcement, your law enforcement and the penalties for getting caught. And you know, there's a huge drive for this illegal trade.

So, you know, there are lots of European countries with insufficient dogs to meet owner demand. And there's just in general massive demand, especially over the covid period. But it appears to have continued since that people want puppies and they want popular, often expensive breeds.

That, you know, they may be looking to get from a variety of locations, so the rewards are high for people undergoing, these sort of illegal activities potentially. And there is just massive ease of movement with very poor enforcement, of any restrictions that are present in many parts of Europe. And the dogs trust, in the UK.

Has done a lot of work on this. It's it's moved dogs across borders. That haven't got the correct paperwork or microchips very easily, and they've collected a lot of data, which is likely just skimming the surface of the problem.

And it it suggests that it is a huge problem. And one of the issues with that is that currently the penalties are just not very severe if you get caught so considerably less than, say, illegal movement of drugs, but still with very high financial rewards. So I highlight this not because I want you to all run out and, you know, start setting up your own illegal dog movement businesses.

But because, as as practitioners, whether we're in first line practise whether we're in referral practises, being vigilant for correct paperwork and pet histories is very, very important. Other factors that are changing are pet travel and increased human migration. So there are lots of drivers at the moment pushing human migration.

And this is another massive political issue, which, you know, we we don't probably not gonna have time to get into today, but we can see immediate effects. So we've seen lots of dogs displaced from Ukraine, and move to a wide variety of, other European countries, with their owners, fleeing the conflict. Looking for safety.

Either on a temporary or more permanent basis. We see natural disasters move, people away from from locations, again, either temporarily or permanently into other countries or other geographic reasons. And there are strong socio-economic drivers.

So people all over Europe looking for new lives, you know, looking for a better, quality of life in In different parts of of Europe, pet travel goes on unabated. It had a temporary dip, quite a considerable dip during covid. But that appears to now be coming back quite strongly.

You know, over the past 20 years, it's just become much easier to move dogs around Europe. But it's also driven by human relocation. So, you know, if you, take your dog to a new country, you know, you set up a new life there.

You know, you may well, at some stage want to go and take your new dog, or your your dog that you had to go and see your relatives. Go and see your friends in the country that you came from. And in the background to all of this.

You know, there are still relatively few Czechs across many borders. You know, so I. I recently had a gentleman who wanted to take his cat, to Iraq, from the UK, and was gonna drive and, as far as I know, did drive his cat across, any number of European countries, to get to turkey.

And you know all of this we have correct paperwork for, But, you know, you can just just imagine that, you know, probably in certain parts of that journey, some of the checks he's gonna have had on that paperwork are going to have been, let's say, less strong than than in other parts of his journey. So that regulation, both for pet travel and for pet importation is is really important. So if we focus on imported dogs, what are the roles of veterinary practitioners and indeed, veterinary professionals as a whole?

Because in terms of a point of initial contact, veterinary nurse is hugely important as well. Well, I think we need to focus on public education. A lot of the public are focused on rescuing the dogs without necessarily knowing some of these background consequences.

We need to clinically assess, relocated pets. We need to make sure that appropriate treatments are in place. That's very, very important.

And also, you know, we need to encourage, people who have imported pets, to make sure that, you know, appropriate tests are then carried out in in the vast majority of cases at their own expense. So that is an encourage rather than a demand. And it's very important we contribute to surveillance, both locally, but also at a national and European wide level.

So let's look at these in a little bit more detail. So, as I've discussed, you know, these are highly emotive issues, and it is very easy to get into a them and an US sort of situation. Because of the, you know, spread of disease risk, you know, we're in the right.

They're in the wrong in, in my experience, is is isn't a productive place to be. You know, I think we need to consider that new owners or prospective owners are well meaning. There are lots of pro adoption groups that are active on social media, and a lot of the messaging about rehoming pets from abroad, is self reinforcing.

So it's an echo chamber. So, you know, if you step into that social media environment and just go hang on a minute, you're all mad to be considering this. Things probably aren't going to go very well.

So, as vets, we need a compassionate response. We need to acknowledge, that there is a need, for many of these dogs to be adopted. And in doing that, in engaging, we can start to raise some of the issues that are involved so that the spread of exotic pathogens So pathogens that are exotic to your country, but also, personal zoonotic disease risk, to make sure that people are kept safe without frightening them.

And also just a flag that there may be if they haven't discovered already a potential behavioural issue. So putting them in contact with behaviourists and giving basic behavioural advice. I think it is within our remit as vets to discuss alternative solutions so we can discuss, you know, is there is there the option for rehoming in the country of origin?

Edit? We don't have to move the pet that far. Has that been explored?

Have they looked many of them have. But have they looked at adopting a pet in their own country? Because quite often there are lots of dogs.

That need rehoming. And also, there are lots of charities that they can support if they're looking to do something. But they're not so sold on what that something might be.

There are lots of charities they can support, looking at resolving problems in the country where the pet is going to be relocated from potentially when that pet lands on our consulting room table. I mean, that is absolutely that the the ship has sailed as to whether that dog should have been imported. It's here.

So now we absolutely need to work in close Cooper operation with the new owner. And clinical examination is absolutely crucial, as is an accurate travel history. You know, we have to bear in mind if we're seeing clinical presentations that the incubation period for many of these parasites So leishmania, brucella, heartworm is, mumps.

And in the case of of some parasites like, Leishmania heartworm Alicia as well, it could be years, before clinical signs develop. So it's very easy, particularly if you've got a dog who's not the best. Behaved is a behavioural challenge.

That there might be subsequent rehoming in that country. Dogs might get moved around. It's very easy for that travel history to get lost.

So it's important that we really dig down into that travel history and get as an accurate A history as we can. It's very useful then, to match any clinical signs we've got with possible parasite exposure because, especially if funds are limited, that's gonna inform which parasites we're initially going to test for. It's always good to look for op parasites, so I haven't put fleas on this side slide, but presumably we would all check for fleas, but ticks.

It's important to carefully check for ticks and to identify any that we find. And depending on which country you're in, there are lots of tick keys now where you can be a budding amateur entomologist, and you can follow the key down and try and identify the tick yourself or you can, send them to organisations. So here in the UK, we're very lucky to have the tick surveillance scheme.

But I'm sure in other European countries there are equivalents where you can send ticks to get them identified. Because we need to try and work out if they if they're Rusal, if they're ticks that might establish in the home, it will help to inform which pathogens, the dogs might have been exposed to, and it also helps, to flag other a biosecurity issue. So is this a novel T to your country?

Has it originated potentially in your country? Might it be carrying zoonotic pathogens or pathogens that might establish in your country or region? Appropriate treatments and testing are absolutely crucial.

I mean, absolutely crucial. And I could speak for an hour on this alone. Probably.

I'm not going to, but, you know, so don't worry. But, you know, it is it is a hugely important topic. Treatment is perhaps the more straightforward one.

So if they haven't already been treated, we want flea and tick treatment in place. You know, especially because those, pathogens may be, exotic pathogens may be present in those vectors and ticks, especially, may be missed. So, you know, nymphs are only a couple of millimetres long if we've done a check and we're gone, Oh, we haven't found any act of para sites.

It doesn't mean that they're not there. So at least an initial flea and tick treatment is really important treatment for a choc coccus. If a if a dog has been moved from an endemic to a non endemic country is absolutely crucial and and a legal requirement for some countries before entry, and also testing for heart.

Before you start wading in with your macrocyclic lactone for whatever reason, because, you know there is that potential for anaphylaxis or complications, which you can be vigilant for and manage if you know heartworm is there. And what sort of micro ferial load, you've got the diagnostics are more complicated because it's gonna massively depend on which country you're in. And which pathogens you're primarily, worried about.

However, in General General, we wanna consider that travel history when we're considering which parasite we might be most worried about. Clinical presentation. So clinical signs, guiding your choice, previous tests, if they're from a reliable source, and you've got reliable documentation, so you don't have to.

You're not doubling up your work. And also, we want to consider cost to the client. We want to make it as affordable as possible while maintaining good, sensitivity and specificity.

So this is a A list? Which ESCAP is is revising all the time. So this list is, slightly different from the one that's found on the ESCAP UK and Ireland website.

This is one that we're working F for, guideline nine. Which is a new guideline, which is gonna be coming out soon on pet relocation and travel. In general, though, this is a sort of fair guide, and you'll have access to this webinar afterwards.

So, you know, you may be desperately reaching for your phones to take a photo now, but you know this, this information I can supply later, but it's just to give you a flavour. So in brief, leishmania quantitative serology is really useful if you're in a non endemic country. Because it it'll it allows you to measure progress over time.

But also is a pretty good indicator as to whether you've got infection present. If you're in a non endemic country, we have to bear in mind. That it does take, months, potentially six months or so, for antibodies to start to develop.

So you may want to test again. Six months or so after entry to the non endemic country. Dialer I it says antigen blood testing and microfilaria testing in combination.

Really useful. You know, really useful screen. Dire ripens and all its subcutaneous worm friends.

You might just spot them if you're really lucky crawling out of some incision, or, you know, you can do the range of protozoa. So Alicia Anaplasma hepata zur and Bebe, where, you know, you could be using, serology, in this case, say, of Alicia, or PC R. For Alicia Hepata and bebe, in clinical cases, blood smears useful for bees and, to a limited extent, useful for hepata zoo and as well, I mean, I would always encourage you to do a blood smear because although for many parasites, sensitivity will be very low if you pick them up, Job's done.

Brucella. Serology is a good screen. If you're a non endemic country, you know, good initial screen, but again, it takes months can take good three months for antibodies to develop and for heartworm as well.

If we're antigen, testing can be 69 months before antigens detectable post infection. So, you know, we want to be looking at the timing and maybe repeat testing for these pathogens after that length of time. And there's a whole range of exciting faecal pathogens.

So ankylosaur Strongyloides all the fascinating intestinal nema toes that you may not have present in your country. So it's good to detect those by faecal examination as well, contributing to surveillance really important and, you know, just a really sort of, you know, good fulfilling thing to do, as a vet. So if you get positive, dogs that are positive, for parasites that aren't endemic in your country or region, it's great to report them.

So some universities, have reporting ser, services. Sometimes it's government institutions. So, in the UK would be the A PH a, you know, peer reviewed journals.

You know, lots of places that you can record your cases. So, you know, there's been good case reporting for IUs in in northern Europe. In households, and lots of, I've just been alerted now to a paper that was published yesterday, on sort of cases of leach mania, sort of numbers of cases of leach mania that have been picked up, in the UK.

So, you know, it's by recording cases and recording data, that we can start to build up, a bigger picture. So in conclusion, you know, reho rehoming of dogs. You know, lo, whether it's locally, whether it's been rehomed, regionally, in a country or through vast distances globally is an important driver, of parasite and pathogen spread it has animal health, has welfare implications.

But also veterinary and public health consequences as well. I think however much we might like it to change, and we we certainly should try and influence policy and hearts and minds of people and support charities that are helping, dog welfare around the world. Drivers leading to dog ro relocation are likely to continue.

I think, for the foreseeable future, but we have this vital role to play in public education in the early detection of pathogens. That's always gonna be good for case management case outcomes, but also limiting to not at risk and preserving biosecurity and contributing to that surveillance. And, you know, there are groups, that you can go to for more information and support.

So for parasites in Europe, that would be escap in North America. Cap C. Essentially in the rest of the world, it would be trap.

So in your more tropical reasons, and there's also the International Society for Companion Animal Infectious Diseases as well, So that's encompassing things that may be outside of the parasite sphere. So, you know, lots of lots of places you can go to for more information. So, thank you very much for listening.

I am going to attempt to stop sharing my screen, and you'll have to bear with me for a moment because I've not had the chat all the questions up. So let's see what? You've all, thought about this topic.

OK, let's have a little look. So we've got the, chat box first. It says, Hi, Ian.

Do you think that you can cover leash mania with serology examination? Isn't it more specific to examine bone marrow? Do you know how sensitive and specific serology examination is?

Well, that is that is an excellent question. So So, actually, in terms of exposure to infection, serology is pretty specific. Unless you live in a country, say where you've got all the tripa zones like Tri Tri Panoz on a cruise eye, and then you are going to have some crossover.

So, yes, we have to bear that in mind. And depending on the timing, So as long as you've left it long enough, pretty sensitive test as well, But it is for exposure to infection. So quantitative serology is really useful.

Qualitative is useful as an initial screen quantitative is gonna give you antibody numbers. If you're in a non endemic country and you've got high titers or those tiders are climbing, you can be pretty confident that infection is there. I mean, in clinical cases, yes.

I mean, bone marrow examination is extremely useful. But it is invasive. So, you know, you might also want to consider other sites that have been clinically affected.

Like skin, or lymph nodes or or a combination of those. So, you know, But it is an excellent, you know, a an excellent point. So I'm just gonna switch over now to the Q and a cos it looks like there's a few questions in there.

We've got a few minutes. It's, so first one, it says, would you consider a treatment using rotative active principles? So I'm I'm guessing this is in relation to to drug resistance.

So Well, certainly in terms of worms there, intuitively, you would think that would help. And it's certainly something that's worth considering. There isn't the body of evidence there say that there is currently for large animals and ruminants, so we have to be a little bit careful extrapolating, for sort of conditions, like leash mania.

I mean, if you're treating clinical cases, a lot of it's gonna depend on owner compliance. The state of the kidneys, and, availability of of actives as well. And certainly that's a big driver availability, for instance, of Meloy is is a big driver for heartworm.

Whether you would go for an adult side or a slow kill policy. But you know, so much of it is is driven by client factors like compliance. Expense.

But also, the state of the patient, you know, is is another big, consideration. Let's have a look. So we probably won't have time to answer all of these, so I'm just gonna just run my way through.

So it says, don't just bear with me. It says so many owners are giving unnecessary treatments and Oh, sorry. The, the thing moving around cos fresh questions are coming in, which is wonderful.

So it says so many owners are giving, are anti giving unnecessary treatments and increasingly relying on faecal screening, screening with worm count, et cetera. In your view, is this sufficient to protect the population, or should we still advocate routine worming? Well, routine deworming in general, in pets in general, should be done on the basis of a risk assessment.

I mean it. It depends on the parasites. So if we're talking about intestinal helms, it is an option to test instead.

But that needs to be done with highly sensitive and specific tests and It needs to be done at relatively high frequency, to decrease the risk of shedding in between testing. But you know, both Both are, you know, potential approaches. It depends on the parasite involved.

To go into it in depth is probably beyond the scope of of the time I've got now, but I I'm happy to discuss it. Maybe in an email, or, you know, I I in another forum. But, I mean, in terms of imported pets, you you would do a faecal screen.

I mean, for a coin of coccus you would treat, if it's come from an endemic country. But for intestinal roundworms, I mean, you would screen, to see what's there. It says, thank you.

Currently, the EU passport allows entry into the UK. Oh, sorry. We've moved again, into the UK.

Not the other way round since Brexit only ICAO coccus's controls. Why not all the zoonosis? And then, you know, it suggests, for instance, leishmania.

Well, icao coccus was selected partially because, you know, the the zoo no transmission risk is high. And the consequence is severe. In in well, in in a good number of cases.

But also, the Pras Onal is a very effective treatment. And it's a good way, of blocking establishments. You know, if you have, a sort of parasite leash, like leash mania, treatment is not going to eliminate that parasite.

I mean, what we're aiming for is management of the individual. So, you know, circumstances are are gonna be very, very different. So you know, it's a case of considering the parasite that you've got and then whether testing on entry or treatment, or then both, you know, potentially is more appropriate.

What are the most worrying leptos virus species that come in from other areas? Can these be treated like other, leptospira D vaccines help. So I was gonna say the first bit.

It's gonna sound like a flippant answer, but it isn't. I mean, it depends which strains you've got present. But the worrying ones are the novel ones.

The ones that might not be covered by your routine vaccination and certainly, you know, WS a VA. And you know, many infectious disease specialists are are just now recommending L four vaccination. I mean, that's as as good a leptospira cover as you can get by vaccination.

There are still strains outside of that, that you may not be covered against, but that is maximising your your vaccine protection. And, you know, treatment is is the same, but presentations can be different. So you have to bear in mind that the clinical presentation may vary, but diagnostic and treatment approaches in general, are going to be broadly the same.

I'm skipping down here a little bit, cos I've only got a minute or two. It says if the ship has sailed, isn't this too late? For instance, New Zealand cats, rats and cats.

Not everyone will have their rescue dogs treated. And once their pet passport has been issued, they're allowed to travel across the EU with no checks. Shouldn't it be cons compulsory?

Well, I think there's a lot of debate about you know which parasites you would have compulsory treatment for. I think it would be really good actually to come back to this in the panel discussion later, we we can have a chat. But I mean it in General, I think you know, it's easy to be defeatist, but I think any cases that we're picking up, first of all are are very good for individual management of that patient.

So things like leash mania. Heart worm. You know, it's good for the individual patient to pick up these, cases and manage them or treat them early.

But for things like Eino coccus that blanket treatment of dogs that are coming in even if we don't get them all is just It's an odds game, you know? And even if it delays introduction, say, by 510 years, the benefit in terms of of human health impact would still be very large. So, you know, I, I absolutely would say don't lose hearts.

You know, every case you pick up every sort of preventative sort of tapeworm treatment that you give for aino coccus for dogs coming in, you know, is is a is a benefit, so absolutely keep keep plugging away. What are the costs involved for owners with these imported rescue animals? Also, should the animal health certificate in the UK make owners use preventative Antel metics.

Well, they do in a way cos they have to have the tapeworm treatment before they come back in. And that really is the sort of current primary, you know, massive zoonotic risk. That might come into the UK.

Costs involved are considerable, for imported pets, if they're going to do the testing that I would like them to do. So a lot of these pets are adopted for free. But they're not really for free.

Because of the behavioural issues, potential health issues and the diagnostics that are then involved. And that's where the education with owners, ideally before they adopt the dog is really important. And we do have, fact sheet regarding this on the SCP website.