CAHSS Podcast Series - Animal Health Insights

Mental health is an essential facet of health and well-being for everyone, but there are unique facets of mental health that can be affected for all those who work with animals and who navigate the challenges associated with an animal health incident. Dr. Margaret McGeoghegan and Dr. Luc Bergeron discuss the significant mental health impacts of these situations on producers and veterinarians, and review how our government organizations are consistently working to improve communications and supports in these incredibly stressful scenarios.

Dr. McGeoghegan currently works as a Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinary program analyst and she is also a CFIA liaison for the vet college and the province of PEI.  Additionally, she works closely with the provincial Chief Veterinary Officer, industry groups, and producers in PEI.  As part of her work, she participates as a member of the CFIA National Human Destruction Emergency Response Team and working group. She participated in the 2004 Avian influenza outbreak in the Fraser Valley, B.C., that led to the development of national emergency response teams, and she trains and leads on many disease response exercises. She also was site commander in the Infectious Salmon Anemia outbreaks in Newfoundland in 2013 – so she has a strong understanding of the importance of strong leadership and clear communications to all those involved in an animal health incident. 

Dr. Bergeron is a veterinarian and epidemiologist who graduated from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Montreal. He worked initially as a large animal veterinarian, and currently works in animal health surveillance, and is the coordinator of the surveillance network for bovine diseases at the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Links of Interest: 

Mental health supports for producers and agricultural workers:

• DoMoreAg: a not-for-profit organization focusing on mental health in agriculture across Canada.

• In the Know: A mental health literacy program for farmers and the agricultural community

• Producer Specific mental health resources from Nova Scotia

• farmerstalk.ca : confidential counselling for farmers

Veterinary Mental Health: 

• Canadian Veterinary mental health resources from the CVMA

Some diseases have the potential to be so threatening to animal or human health, or so rapidly contagious, that veterinary authorities need to aware of a single case as soon as possible. For some of these reportable diseases, actions or interventions are required immediately, while for others, veterinary authorities need to be aware of their occurrence simply for disease surveillance and monitoring purposes. Veterinarians in practice, and even animal owners, are required to contact these authorities if they have even just the suspicion that an animal *might* have one of these reportable infections.

Once a veterinarian has contacted the appropriate authorities, these federal veterinarians (from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency) and sometimes provincial veterinarians, are involved in the processes of disease surveillance for certain specific diseases. In the rare case of a significant disease outbreak, these experts monitor the patterns of disease spread, and when indicated, may be involved in management of the case to ensure it does not  turn into an incident affecting many animals, many humans, and our national food security systems and public health. This is an important role, and often involves several specialists working on the front lines, the middle lines, and behind the scenes, to ensure rapid diagnosis and appropriate management of an outbreak. Dr. Margaret McGeoghegan from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Dr. Luc Bergeron, a disease surveillance veterinarian from Quebec, help to demystify these situations, and provide some clarification as to just who does what, and why and how they do it in the case of an animal health incident. 

Links of Interest:

• Terrestrial Animal Diseases list and information - CFIA

There are a number of clinical signs that always strike a bit of fear into the veterinary heart –  for example, livestock that show blisters on their nose, mouth, or near their hooves, the dog or cat with unexplained neurological signs (especially if they had recent interaction with a bat), or the acute death of a number of animals. In any of these cases (and in many others) a veterinarian must keep the potential of certain reportable diseases on their differential list, and they contact their federal and provincial authorities to advise of this possibility. But, once a vet has made that contact, what happens? What’s the next step? This can sometimes be unclear, as each disease incident has many different variables, and generally, a “risk-based assessment” is performed to assess the level of concern and risk to other humans and animals on a case by case basis. The varied responses and the methods by which veterinary regulatory authorities manage a disease outbreak can be confusing, so in the next 3 podcast episodes we try to provide some clarity around these processes, by working through all levels of diagnosis and response – and highlight the connections between veterinarians and the provincial and federal veterinary authorities. 

Dr. Ryan Tenbergen is a swine veterinarian who works with Demeter Services Vétérinaires, and he has a strong interest in research and epidemiology. He is a past-president of the Ontario Association of Swine Veterinarians, and contributes to disease surveillance nationally as a representative for the Maritimes on the Canadian Swine Health Information Network. Dr. Tenbergen shares his experiences interacting with veterinary authorities as part of the diagnostic process. 

Links of Interest: 

• Find a CFIA District Office contact number

When diseases affect our wildlife, they can also impact the health of domestic animals and humans. Diseases may "spillover" from wildlife to other species, can be maintained in nature, develop new and more potent strains, and can travel across provincial, territorial, and national borders, often unimpeded. Increasing stresses due to habitat loss, international trade of animals and their parts, climate change, or any of the artificial constructs our human society creates – compound the health challenges faced by the wildlife species we share this planet with. Veterinarians and wildlife biologists work together to study, monitor, learn from, and support our wildlife populations.

Dr. Iga Stasiak is a veterinarian working as a wildlife health specialist in for the Ministry of the Environment in Saskatchewan. She works on a number of initiatives in that province, and is particularly active working on management of Chronic Wasting Disease, a disease of cervids. She discusses Chronic Wasting Disease and its surveillance with us, and discusses why wildlife health and disease monitoring is such an important (but complex) undertaking. 

Links of Interest:

• Canadian Resources:

• Chronic Wasting Disease testing and surveillance information for Saskatchewan

• The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy CWD website

When we bring dogs from far away into Canada, it is essential that we consider infectious organisms they may also bring into our country as “tag-alongs”. This a veterinarian and molecular-parasitology researcher (who is devoted to tackling zoonotic parasites) shares details on which infections should be top of mind when importing dogs, and describes a cautionary tale of an imported parasitic disease, Leishmania infantum. 

Anyone who has been working in veterinary clinics throughout the pandemic will be all-too-aware of the increase in pet-ownership, and specifically, puppy and dog adoption, occurring throughout the past little while. Sometimes it seems that everyone, everywhere is on the hunt for a new furry companion to add to the family, and veterinarians have certainly had their hands full trying to keep up to the increased demand for veterinary medical services. Dog breeders in Canada are taking reservations years into the future for puppies, and prices for puppies are rising. Pet rescue organizations have also been scrambling to fill this “puppy void” – and increasing numbers of dogs are imported into Canada each year from far off locations. Sometimes these dogs are imported from countries where they have a drastically different climate, and potentially very different parasite and infectious disease threats for both dogs and humans.

It is impossible to keep every single infectious disease front and centre in our minds, but veterinarians know that when something seems weird or unusual, we need to call in some help. In 2020, this is exactly what happened in Quebec, Canada, when multiple veterinarians noticed some  unusual things in their canine patients. And, as it turns out, these unusual findings were all observed in dogs that were imported to Canada. 

Dr. Christopher Fernandez-Prada played an instrumental role in helping veterinarians investigate cases of Leishmania infantum, a parasitic infection. Dr. Fernandez-Prada is currently Director of the parasitology diagnostic laboratory and an assistant professor at the University of Montreal. In addition, he is also an Adjunct professor at McGill University faculty of Medicine, Deputy director of the Animal Infectious Diseases Research Group, and he is a member of the steering committee of the Canadian Network in Neglected Tropical Diseases. Recently, Dr. Fernandez Prada was the first veterinarian to receive the Canadian Institutes of Health Research prize – the Bhagirath Singh Early Career Award in Infection and Immunity. 

Links of Interest: 

• Leishmania infantum infection in a dog imported from Morocco. Wagner V, Douanne N, Fernandez-Prada C. Leishmania infantum infection in a dog imported from Morocco. The Canadian Veterinary Journal = La Revue Veterinaire Canadienne. 2020 Sep;61(9):963-965. PMID: 32879521; PMCID: PMC7424924._

Toute personne ayant travaillé dans une clinique vétérinaire pendant la pandémie sait trop bien que les adoptions d’animaux de compagnie, en particulier de chiots et de chiens, sont en hausse depuis quelque temps. On dirait parfois que tout le monde, partout, est en quête d’un nouveau compagnon à fourrure à ajouter à la famille, et les médecins vétérinaires sont très occupés à essayer de suffire à la demande accrue pour les services de santé vétérinaire. Les éleveurs de chiens du Canada prennent des réservations plusieurs années d’avance pour fournir des chiots, et les prix de ces chiots augmentent. Les organismes de sauvetage d’animaux de compagnie font aussi des pieds et des mains pour combler ce « manque de chiots » – et de plus en plus de chiens d’endroits éloignés sont importés au Canada chaque année. Ils viennent parfois de pays où le climat est radicalement différent et où des parasites et des maladies infectieuses très différents peuvent poser une menace pour la santé des chiens et des humains. Quand nous importons des chiens de très loin, il est essentiel de penser aux petits « passagers » contagieux qu’ils peuvent apporter avec eux dans notre pays.

Dr Fernandez-Prada est un médecin vétérinaire et chercheur en parasitologie moléculaire spécialiste des parasites zoonotiques. Il est directeur du laboratoire de diagnostic en parasitologie et professeur adjoint à l’Université de Montréal. Il est aussi professeur associé à la Faculté de médecine de l’Université McGill, directeur adjoint du Groupe de recherche sur les maladies infectieuses en production animale et membre du comité directeur du Réseau canadien pour les maladies tropicales négligées. Et il est récemment devenu le premier médecin vétérinaire à recevoir le prix Bhagirath-Singh de début de carrière en recherche en maladies infectieuses et immunitaires décerné par les Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada.

Liens d’intérêt:

• Infection par Leishmania infantum chez un chien importé du Maroc. (Wagner V, Douanne N, Fernandez-Prada C. Leishmania infantum infection in a dog imported from Morocco. The Canadian Veterinary Journal = La Revue Veterinaire Canadienne. 2020 Sep;61(9):963-965. PMID: 32879521; PMCID: PMC7424924._)

We're all racing neck and neck against antimicrobial resistance - trying to preserve antibiotics for use in the most critical situations. This equine specialist pinpoints actions horse owners and veterinarians can take to minimize spread of resistant pathogens in horse populations and facilities.

With fewer anti-microbials in our equine veterinary toolkit, it is essential that we learn all we can about how antimicrobial resistant pathogens travel between horses and their handlers. Without being able to identify and track antibiotic resistant bacteria, we are left in the dark when we try to adjust our management of our animals to minimize disease and to save these valuable medications for situations where they are absolutely necessary.

Dr. Maud de Lagarde is a researcher and diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine who studies the movement of antimicrobial resistant genes in bacterial populations that affect horses in both Quebec and France. She is specifically interested in their route of dissemination to develop strategies to prevent antimicrobial resistance, and her work highlights some interesting intervention points for horse owners and veterinarians alike.

Links of Interest: 

• Prevalence, risk factors, and characterization of multidrug resistant and extended spectrum β-lactamase/AmpC β-lactamase producing Escherichia coli in healthy horses in France in 2015  (de Lagarde M, Larrieu C, Praud K, Schouler C, Doublet B, Sallé G, Fairbrother JM, Arsenault J. Prevalence, risk factors, and characterization of multidrug resistant and extended spectrum β-lactamase/AmpC β-lactamase producing Escherichia coli in healthy horses in France in 2015. J Vet Intern Med. 2019 Mar;33(2):902-911. doi: 10.1111/jvim.15415. Epub 2019 Jan 15. PMID: 30648296; PMCID: PMC6430864.)

Nous sommes tous engagés dans une course contre la résistance aux antibiotiques et nous essayons de préserver l’efficacité de ces médicaments pour pouvoir continuer à les utiliser dans les situations les plus critiques. Cette spécialiste en médecine équine propose aux propriétaires de chevaux et aux vétérinaires équins des mesures qui peuvent être utilisées pour réduire la propagation de bactéries pathogènes résistantes au sein de la population équine et dans les écuries.

Étant donné la réduction du nombre d’antibiotiques disponibles dans la trousse médicale des vétérinaires équins, il est essentiel que ces derniers aient accès à un maximum de connaissances concernant la façon dont les bactéries pathogènes résistantes aux antibiotiques peuvent se transmettre entre les chevaux et leurs propriétaires. Si les vétérinaires équins ne savent pas comment identifier et suivre les mouvements des bactéries résistantes aux antibiotiques, il leur est difficile d’adapter la gestion de leurs cas pour réduire le risque de maladies et réserver ces médicaments importants aux situations pour lesquelles ils sont absolument nécessaires.

Dre Maud de Lagarde est chercheure et diplomée du Collège américain de médecine interne vétérinaire (ACVIM). Elle étudie les mouvements des gènes de résistance aux antibiotiques dans les populations bactériennes retrouvées chez les chevaux au Québec et en France. Elle s’intéresse particulièrement à la façon dont ces gènes se propagent afin de développer des stratégies de prévention de la résistance. Son travail souligne des possibilité d’interventions concrètes pour les propriétaires de chevaux et leurs vétérinaires.

Liens d’intérêt:

• Prevalence, risk factors, and characterization of multidrug resistant and extended spectrum β-lactamase/AmpC β-lactamase producing Escherichia coli in healthy horses in France in 2015  (de Lagarde M, Larrieu C, Praud K, Schouler C, Doublet B, Sallé G, Fairbrother JM, Arsenault J. Prevalence, risk factors, and characterization of multidrug resistant and extended spectrum β-lactamase/AmpC β-lactamase producing Escherichia coli in healthy horses in France in 2015. J Vet Intern Med. 2019 Mar;33(2):902-911. doi: 10.1111/jvim.15415. Epub 2019 Jan 15. PMID: 30648296; PMCID: PMC6430864.)

Sharing information about Salmonella Dublin, an emerging pathogen of cattle, is essential to improve health, manage disease and minimize losses. This epidemiologist of infectious diseases of dairy cattle discusses some innovative ways to share Salmonella Dublin risk and prevalence information with producers and veterinarians. 

For the past number of years, in our cattle populations, veterinarians and producers have dealt with a host-adapted strain of Salmonella that causes significant respiratory disease and sepsis in calves and can cause major production losses for an infected herd. Veterinarians work hard with their producers to set up biosecurity and treatment protocols on farm to help minimize new infections and manage risk factors, but there is also a lot of exciting work going on at Universities, and with governments and disease surveillance organizations to establish programs to effectively monitor outbreaks, track infections, and communicate this disease prevalence and risk information back to producers and veterinarians. 

Dr. Simon Dufour, a Professor in the Department of Pathology and Microbiology at the Faculty of Veterinary medicine at the University of Montreal, joins us to share some information on Salmonella Dublin infections in dairy calves and cattle, and to discuss some collaborative projects that are in the works to help manage this important emerging pathogen.

Links of Interest:

• Dr. Dufour and his research

Il est essentiel de partager de l’information à propos de ce pathogène en émergence chez les bovins afin d’améliorer la santé, gérer la maladie et réduire les pertes qui y sont associées. Ce spécialiste en épidémiologie des maladies infectieuses des bovins laitiers discute de nouvelles façons de partager de l’information aux producteurs et aux vétérinaires à propos des risques et de la prévalence de cette maladie.

Dr Simon Dufour, professeur au département de pathologie et de microbiologie de la faculté de médecine vétérinaire de l’Université de Montréal, va nous partager de l’information au sujet des infections à Salmonella Dublin dans les élevages laitiers, va discuter de certains projets en cours pour aider à gérer cet important pathogène en émergence.

Liens d’intérêt:

• Dr. Dufour et ses recherches