Canine parvovirus in Australia: The role of socio-economic factors in disease clusters

Abstract

To identify clusters of canine parvoviral related disease occurring in Australia during 2010 and investigate the role of socio-economic factors contributing to these clusters, reported cases of canine parvovirus were extracted from an on-line disease surveillance system. Reported residential postcode was used to locate cases, and clusters were identified using a scan statistic. Cases included in clusters were compared to those not included in such clusters with respect to human socioeconomic factors (postcode area relative socioeconomic disadvantage, economic resources, education and occupation) and dog factors (neuter status, breed, age, gender, vaccination status). During 2010, there were 1187 cases of canine parvovirus reported. Nineteen significant (P<0.05) disease clusters were identified, most commonly located in New South Wales. Eleven (58%) clusters occurred between April and July, and the average cluster length was 5.7 days. All clusters occurred in postcodes with a significantly (P<0.05) greater level of relative socioeconomic disadvantage and a lower rank in education and occupation, and it was noted that clustered cases were less likely to have been neutered (P=0.004). No significant difference (P>0.05) was found between cases reported from cluster postcodes and those not within clusters for dog age, gender, breed or vaccination status (although the latter needs to be interpreted with caution, since vaccination was absent in most of the cases). Further research is required to investigate the apparent association between indicators of poor socioeconomic status and clusters of reported canine parvovirus diseases; however these initial findings may be useful for developing geographically- and temporally-targeted prevention and disease control programs.

The relationship between the Southern Oscillation Index, rainfall and the occurrence of canine tick paralysis, feline tick paralysis and canine parvovirus in Australia

“…The data generated by Disease WatchDog have been used to investigate risk factors for several companion animal diseases, including tick paralysis, parvovirus, feline calicivirus, and feline herpes virus (Brady et al, 2012;Ling et al, 2012;Eppleston et al, 2013;Wong et al, 2013;Brazier et al, 2014). Between its launch in January 2010 and December 2013, >4000 diagnosed cases of canine parvovirus and >8,000 diagnosed cases of tick paralysis have been reported, making this system an important tool in companion animal epidemiological research.…”

Socioeconomic, geographic and climatic risk factors for canine parvovirus infection and euthanasia in Australia

“…Social disadvantage has been suggested previously as a risk factor for CPV (Brady et al, 2012;Brunner and Swango, 1985). Our multivariate analysis of national data demonstrated this was also a significant variable in our study, confirming this finding.…”

“…Our multivariate analysis of national data demonstrated this was also a significant variable in our study, confirming this finding. An association between CPV case occurrence and socioeconomic status might be due to vaccine affordability (Brady et al, 2012;Zourkas et al, 2015) or reduced accessibility to veterinary facilities, (Brady et al, 2012;Freiwald et al, 2014) however scientific evidence to support this has been lacking. A perceived lack of affordability of vaccination has been recognized.…”

“…Horner, 1983;Houston et al, 1996;Kalli et al, 2010;Rika-Heke et al, 2015). Epidemiological studies have been limited until recently by a lack of reliable and suitable data, and an absence of national representative data (Brady et al, 2012). The aim of this study was to determine from national data the association between socioeconomic, geographic, and climatic risk factors and CPV infection, and CPV-associated euthanasia rates.…”

“…Euthanasia is the leading cause of death from CPV in Australia (Ling et al, 2012) with 20,000 CPV cases estimated annually and higher reporting in rural and remote areas and lower socioeconomic regions (Kelman et al, 2019). The reasons for this distribution are not fully understood, however lack of vaccination or an incomplete vaccination course due to affordability issues in these areas is one suggested explanation (Brady et al, 2012;Kelman et al, 2019;Zourkas et al, 2015). Breed, stress, co-infection with other pathogen(s), immunosuppression, and geographic region are reported predisposing factors for infection (Goddard and Leisewitz, 2010;Kalli et al, 2010;Mylonakis et al, 2016).…”