ESCCAP summer update 2019

It was expected that 2019 would have a heavy focus on travelling pets, legislation and exotic disease, due to ongoing Brexit activity. Drawing from information published in the ESCCAP UK & Ireland Parasite Forecasts, this article takes a look at how 2019 is progressing to date and identifies some of the similarities and differences compared with 2018.

This time last year, the key themes were:

So far in 2019 the key themes are:

The general theme of pet travel has remained a hot topic throughout 2018 and into 2019. There has been less focus on Brexit as a whole, but concern is mounting among owners who travel with their pets abroad that leaving the EU without a deal will severely impact their short- and long-term plans. However, so far in 2019 focus has been more specifically on travel regulations and exotic parasites rather than the specifics of illegal and legal pet importation.

Despite this, imported rescue pets do continue to be a highly emotive issue, with increasing numbers of people wanting to help stray and afflicted pets from abroad, despite the dangers that imported disease may bring. Spring 2019 saw two reported cases of Leishmania spp. in untravelled UK dogs, acting as a reminder that although we do not currently have the sandfly vector in the UK, we should not be complacent about the establishment of Leishmania spp. here. ESCCAP UK & Ireland has also been alerted to numerous cases of heartworm and exotic tick-borne disease in dogs imported from across the globe as well as the EU.