Fairfax County has suspended dog adoptions at its animal shelter after two pooches tested positive for canine flu.
Officials at the West Ox Road shelter confirmed the infections and quarantined the dogs for treatment, said Fairfax County Police Department spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell. The county is monitoring 28 other dogs that were showing potential flu symptoms, she said.
The infections, which originally were presumed to be kennel cough, mark the first two cases of canine influenza — H3N8 — to be confirmed in Fairfax, according to Caldwell. Humans are not vulnerable to the virus.
Only about 1 to 5 percent of dogs infected with H3N8 will die from the virus, which tends to run its course over two weeks, said Bill Tyrrell, a veterinarian in Leesburg and president-elect of the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association.
He said dog flu was first reported in Florida in 2004 among racing greyhounds, and later it began showing up in isolated incidents throughout the county.
The Fairfax shelter is “being very proactive and very responsible by closing the shelter down” to dog adoptions, Tyrrell said.
Local veterinarians have told county officials they have recently seen other cases of dog flu, which may have spread to other areas, Caldwell said.
“This is not a situation that we see as an emergency, but we do see it as something that is a concern and we want to let dogowners know,” she said.
Dogs infected with the virus show symptoms of coughing, runny nose and fever, and a small number of cases can become severe, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says almost all dogs are susceptible to infection.
The county plans to restart dog adoptions once it deems there is no further risk of contamination.
The shelter remains open for other kinds of pet adoptions. Officials there are now trying to contact people who have recently adopted dogs.
