Brucella canis explained as woman is first in UK to get rare animal-borne disease

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A "heartbroken" pet owner has been forced to put her five dogs to sleep after being the first person in the UK to be diagnosed with a rare animal-borne disease.

Wendy Hayes, from Stoke-on-Trent, had no choice but to euthanise her beloved dogs, after she contracted brucella canis from a Belarusian rescue dog she was fostering.Pregnant Moosha had only been with the 61 year-old for three days before symptoms started, as she miscarried her puppies throughout the home in a "horrific" 17-hour ordeal.Both owner and dog were diagnosed with the illness two months after Wendy began to show severe symptoms.While Wendy is recovering and on antibiotics, she still feels the guilt for having to make the decision to say goodbye to her loving dogs.As brucella canis is found mostly in imported dogs, they pose a higher risk than UK-based canines, as there is currently no testing mandates for such diseases.Justine Shotton, president of the British Veterinary Association told the Record: "Vets in the UK are increasingly concerned about the disease risks from the import of dogs with unknown health histories."While some charities do carry out pre-import health tests on these so-called Trojan dogs, there's currently no requirement to test for diseases such as canine brucellosis, which are not commonly found in the UK.There is also an added risk for public health, including for veterinary teams who treat and handle these animals, due to contact with an infected dog’s contaminated body tissues, urine, blood and saliva.""That is why we always advise people who want to rehome dogs to go to UK-based charities."We're also calling on the government to take urgent action to introduce mandatory pre-import testing for dogs coming into the UK so we can