Special Report Risk reduction and management strategies to prevent transmission of infectious disease among dogs at dog shows, sporting events, and other canine group settings Jason W. Stull VMD, PhD From the Departments of Veterinary Preventive Medicine (Stull, Kasten, Hoet, O’Quin), Veterinary Clinical Sciences (Sherding), and Veterinary Biosciences (Burkhard), College Jennifer I. Kasten DVM of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210; Michelle Michelle D. Evason DVM Evason Veterinary Internal Medicine & Nutrition Consulting, Columbus, OH 43214 (Eva- son); and the Department of Pathobiology, Ontario Veterinary College, and Centre for Robert G. Sherding DVM Public Health and Zoonoses, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada Armando E. Hoet DVM, PhD (Weese). Jeanette O’Quin DVM, MPH Address correspondence to Dr. Stull (
[email protected]). Mary Jo Burkhard DVM, PhD J. Scott Weese DVM, DVSc pproximately 35% of households in the United pathogenicity (ability to cause disease), and viru- AStates and Canada own 1 or more dogs, totaling lence (ability to cause severe disease). Additionally, an estimated 75 million dogs in the United States and a combination of individual-, population-, and envi- Canada.1,2 Despite continuous development of health ronment-level factors influences the development of promotion and disease prevention products and infectious diseases in dogs. Individual-level factors strategies, infectious disease remains an important include age, immune and health status, acquired im- contributor to disease and death for dogs. Hundreds munity (previous infection or vaccination), diet, pre- of pathogens infectious to dogs have been identi- ventive care (eg, ecto- and endoparasite control), and fied, with more emerging over time.3 Some of these hand hygiene by the people that handle them.