Humans safe from ‘Canine Distemper’

Officials attached to the Department of Animal Production & Health  last week said the death of nearly 300 dogs in Dimbulgala, Polonnaruwa District last week was due to a disease called ‘Canine Distemper’, which only affects the animals belonging to the canine family. “We have identified the cause of the dogs’ deaths as Distemper disease, said Director General of the Department of Animal Production and Health, Dr. W.K. de Silva,. “The disease is prevalent in Sri Lanka and it spreads rapidly among unvaccinated dogs,” he said. Dr. de Silva cited that the stray dogs were resistant to the virus but health officials have found it was unusual that most dogs died were stray dogs.

“Some areas where mass anti-rabies vaccination campaigns were being conducted, a mass outbreak of distemper might be evident. But we are yet to ascertain if there had been such a campaign in this particular district,” he said. Meanwhile, the District Secretary, Polonnaruwa, said that the reported canine deaths were natural and may be due to the drastic climatic changes. “We have concluded that change in climate from arid to inclement have caused the disease to spread further and farther than expected,” he said.

He added that no more dogs’ deaths were reported since last week isolated incident. “We have experienced the same condition before but not to such an extent. We are not too concerned about it as it is a natural occurrence, he said.