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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bid Buster who wrote (306994)	5/13/2005 4:46:25 PM
From: Box-By-The-Riviera™	Respond to of 436258

who let the dogs out <g>

To: Bid Buster who wrote (306994)	5/13/2005 11:02:37 PM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Respond to of 436258

good mom can kill you also-g- Race flu may kill your pet: CDC probes possible link to humans By Scott Van Voorhis Friday, May 13, 2005 - Updated: 04:58 PM EST The devastating and shadowy malady that is claiming the lives of greyhounds at Revere's Wonderland racetrack may have even deadlier ambitions: lovable Fido and perhaps even his master. The federal government's top scientists are exploring whether a deadly dog flu that has ripped through greyhound tracks across the country - and is suspected in Massachusetts - could leap to humans. The strain of canine influenza has already popped up in other dogs in animal shelters aroundthe country. ``Obviously, there is nothing to stop it from going from greyhounds to terriers or shepherds,'' said Ruben Donis, chief of the molecular genetics section of the influenza branch of the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. ``Humans, we can't say anything at this point,'' Donis said. There is little the typical dog-owning family can do to protect its pet, experts said. Instead, the onus is on greyhound handlers to follow strict hygein protocols so the virus that has devastated racers doesn't jump to the general dog population. Revere's Wonderland dog track has been struck by the deadly contagion. Two more greyhounds died there Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 18 in roughly a week. In Rhode Island, 13 dogs have died at Lincoln Park. Meanwhile, veterinarians treating sick and dying greyhounds at Wonderland's gated, barracks-like kennel compound yesterday enforced a strict quarantine - one aimed at not only dogs, but humans as well. Dr. Lisa Zerbel, a veterinarian at North Shore Animal Hospital who is treating Wonderland's 1,200 greyhounds, rejected a request from a Herald reporter to enter the compound, located in an industrial section of Lynn. Zerbel said even casual human contact with the infected dogs could spread the killer illness beyond the hot zone. ``Just down the street, we have a pet store, many animal hospitals,'' Zerbel said. ``We want to assume it could be easily spread.'' As vets battle the epidemic, state officials are now scrambling to nail down exactly what is killing the dogs - and to prove whether it is linked to the flu-like killer that has affected an estimated 10,000 dogs nationwide. These include a few hundred domestic dogs as well. And the federal CDC may help in that research, with plans to request a tissue sample from some of the dead Massachusetts dogs, Donis said. This summer, the CDC also plans to begin testing the blood of track workers in other states - the first step in determining whether the canine flu may have already leaped to humans. A sliver of good news: The mystery dog flu appears not to be the kind of killer that some scientists have seen in the so-called ``avian influenza'' - a canine malady that has infected and killed people in Asia. Donis said the illness sweeping through greyhound populations appears to be milder. That said, flu, in the period right after it jumps to a new species, can prove unpredictably virulent. The 1918 influenza epidemic eventually lost its killer status, but not before millions died in the few years after its outbreak, Donis said.