Disease trackers set their sights on pets
The effort, which also includes academic scientists and other companies in the pet industry, is still in its early stages. Initially, it will focus on bird flu
Published: 07:08 PM,Aug 17,2024 | EDITED : 11:08 PM,Aug 17,2024
Cats sit on steps at Grazing Plains Farm in Newton, Kan. — NYT
Trupanion, a Seattle-based pet insurance company, is partnering with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create a disease tracking system for pets, the company announced this week. The system will draw on insurance claims submitted to Trupanion in real time when sick dogs and cats visit the veterinarian.
“The concept is to proactively detect potential threats to pets and public health,” said Dr. Steve Weinrauch, the chief veterinary and product officer at Trupanion.
The effort, which also includes academic scientists and other companies in the pet industry, is still in its early stages. Initially, it will focus on bird flu, a virus that has been spreading through American dairy cows and spilling over into domestic cats.
“This is a really important public-private partnership that is going to help fill some important gaps,” said Dr. Casey Barton Behravesh, who directs the CDC’s One Health Office, which focuses on the connections between human, animal and environmental health.
It’s one of several ongoing efforts to address such gaps, which extend far beyond bird flu. Like most other countries, the United States has no comprehensive national system for tracking diseases in pets. While the CDC is charged with protecting human health and the Department of Agriculture focuses on farm animals, companion animals tend to fall through the cracks.
It’s a public health blind spot that leaves both animals and people at risk, experts said. Many infectious diseases — including bird flu, COVID-19 and mpox — are zoonotic, which means that they can spread from animals to humans and back again. And there are few animals that people have closer contact with than those that live in their homes.
Scientists have known for years that cats are susceptible to bird flu, which they can catch when preying on infected wild birds. But the dairy outbreak has created new risks; since late March, dozens of bird flu cases have been confirmed in American cats, some of which were infected after lapping up virus-laden milk.
Bird flu infections in any mammals are cause for concern, giving the virus opportunities to evolve into a bigger threat to humans. “But I think it’s really important that we focus heavily on cats,” said Kristen Coleman, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Maryland.
Cats infected by wild birds could bring the virus home with them, passing it on to their owners, while those that prowl dairy farms could transport the virus off the premises, spreading it to animals in the wild. To date, however, cats have been a relative afterthought in bird flu surveillance.
Advances in technology and changes to the veterinary industry, including the rise of large veterinary chains and the increasing use of pet insurance, have made it more feasible to collect large volumes of health data on pets.
Trupanion now insures more than 1 million pets, and more than 10,000 clinics across North America use the company’s software to submit insurance claims. A sudden spike in claims for coughing dogs in California or feverish cats in New York might be an early signal of a disease outbreak. In the long term, the company hopes to build a system that can flag any such aberrations automatically, Weinrauch said. But it will start with more focused investigations, such as scouring the data for signs that bird flu might be spreading in cats.
In the United States, the Companion Animal Parasite Council tracks the prevalence of Lyme disease in dogs using test results collected from major veterinary laboratories. Every month, the council publishes maps of the prevalence of Lyme, and other parasitic diseases, in every county.
“The concept is to proactively detect potential threats to pets and public health,” said Dr. Steve Weinrauch, the chief veterinary and product officer at Trupanion.
The effort, which also includes academic scientists and other companies in the pet industry, is still in its early stages. Initially, it will focus on bird flu, a virus that has been spreading through American dairy cows and spilling over into domestic cats.
“This is a really important public-private partnership that is going to help fill some important gaps,” said Dr. Casey Barton Behravesh, who directs the CDC’s One Health Office, which focuses on the connections between human, animal and environmental health.
It’s one of several ongoing efforts to address such gaps, which extend far beyond bird flu. Like most other countries, the United States has no comprehensive national system for tracking diseases in pets. While the CDC is charged with protecting human health and the Department of Agriculture focuses on farm animals, companion animals tend to fall through the cracks.
It’s a public health blind spot that leaves both animals and people at risk, experts said. Many infectious diseases — including bird flu, COVID-19 and mpox — are zoonotic, which means that they can spread from animals to humans and back again. And there are few animals that people have closer contact with than those that live in their homes.
Scientists have known for years that cats are susceptible to bird flu, which they can catch when preying on infected wild birds. But the dairy outbreak has created new risks; since late March, dozens of bird flu cases have been confirmed in American cats, some of which were infected after lapping up virus-laden milk.
Bird flu infections in any mammals are cause for concern, giving the virus opportunities to evolve into a bigger threat to humans. “But I think it’s really important that we focus heavily on cats,” said Kristen Coleman, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Maryland.
Cats infected by wild birds could bring the virus home with them, passing it on to their owners, while those that prowl dairy farms could transport the virus off the premises, spreading it to animals in the wild. To date, however, cats have been a relative afterthought in bird flu surveillance.
Advances in technology and changes to the veterinary industry, including the rise of large veterinary chains and the increasing use of pet insurance, have made it more feasible to collect large volumes of health data on pets.
Trupanion now insures more than 1 million pets, and more than 10,000 clinics across North America use the company’s software to submit insurance claims. A sudden spike in claims for coughing dogs in California or feverish cats in New York might be an early signal of a disease outbreak. In the long term, the company hopes to build a system that can flag any such aberrations automatically, Weinrauch said. But it will start with more focused investigations, such as scouring the data for signs that bird flu might be spreading in cats.
In the United States, the Companion Animal Parasite Council tracks the prevalence of Lyme disease in dogs using test results collected from major veterinary laboratories. Every month, the council publishes maps of the prevalence of Lyme, and other parasitic diseases, in every county.