Dog owners in UK warned about new deadly tick disease

Dog owners in the UK have been warned about an outbreak of an animal disease that is carried by ticks, days after the death of two dogs due to babesiosis.

It is the first time that experts have established an outbreak of babesiosis in the country.

In Essex, two dogs have died and three others needed blood transfusions after contracting the disease.

Experts say that it will be impossible to stop the spread of the disease, which is caused by a single-celled parasite.

The ticks carrying the Babesia canis parasite have been found in fields in Harlow, Essex. The local council has put up a sign with a map defining the area and advising dog walkers not to enter.

Two government agencies are now investigating the outbreak: the Animal and Plant Health Agency and Public Health England, the BBC reported today.

“The parasite enters the bloodstream, enters the cells, and in the process of trying to kill the parasite the dog will actually destroy its own blood cells. So they become very anaemic,” Clive Swainsbury, a vet at the Forest Veterinary Centre in Harlow, said.

The expectation is that it will spread throughout the country, the report said.

“At present we have a very well defined area. The problem in the future is that every female tick will lay a couple of thousand eggs and all those offspring from that disease will also carry the disease.

“As mammals move around they will start spreading the disease. Although you can advise dog walkers not to go there, it's possible that foxes and other animals will transport these ticks,” Swainsbury, who has been treating some of infected dogs, including the one that died.

The symptoms of babesiosis within dogs include weakness, lethargy, pale gums, red urine and fever. A serious problem is that Babesia can be mistaken for other less dangerous diseases.

“It’s easy to miss it. And because it's a new disease to this country, we as a profession aren't used to looking for this disease on a regular basis.”

The tick acts as a vector. In the same way that a mosquito transmits malaria by sucking the blood from a person, the tick does the same to an animal.