Changes to the Pet Travel Scheme (PETS) in 2012 to harmonise the UK with the rest of the EU was the catalyst for new trades involving the legal and illegal importation of dogs to develop.
There is ongoing concern about what imported dogs might be bringing with them, specifically non-endemic disease. Enter the ‘Trojan dog’. A number of these non-endemic diseases are vector-borne, including babesiosis, ehrlichiosis and leishmaniosis, coming into a largely immunologically naïve population of animals in the UK. Furthermore, we cannot ignore the potential public health implications of such diseases and, more recently, Brucella canis.
This session will cover the current situation with regards importation, the infections that may result and their impact to humans and the UK dog population.
