Dog
breeders and foreigners moving to South Africa are barking
mad at the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs after
its officials destroyed or sent back their precious pets
on the basis of a dodgy veterinary test.
In the past four months, quarantine facilities have been
crowded with dogs being brought into the country at great
expense while their owners await the outcome of tests for
leishmania, a parasitic disease that kills both humans and
animals.
John Fulton, a Tanzanian veterinarian, said the South African
tests carried out at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute
in Pretoria were inaccurate and "a lot of animals have
been put down that should not have been put down".
Fulton had to put down two dogs destined for South Africa
last December after Onderstepoort advised their owner they
had tested positive for leishmania. Last week, a laboratory
in the United Kingdom, where he sent blood samples of the
two dogs for checking, told him the tests were negative
and the dogs did not have the disease.
"I am very sceptical about the Onderstepoort tests,"
Fulton said. "Tanzania is leishmania-free, but they
insist our dogs are testing positive. Either there's a problem
with their tests, or there's a big epidemic and thousands
of people should be dying."
The World Health Organisation believes up to 12 million
people around the world are affected by the disease, but
many are unaware they are carriers because the symptoms
often do not manifest. It is most prevalent in southern
Europe, where several thousand people are infected each
year.
An immuno-suppressant, its most common forms are cutaneous
leishmania, which causes skin sores, and the more serious
visceral form, which attacks the spleen, liver and bone
marrow.
The organisation says recorded cases have increased significantly
since the early 1990s, because of the leishmania-HIV/Aids
co-infection, which is emerging as an extremely serious,
new disease.
"HIV/Aids and visceral leishmania are locked in a vicious
circle of mutual reinforcement. On the one hand, leishmania
quickly accelerates the onset of Aids and shortens the life
expectancy of HIV-infected people. On the other, HIV spurs
the spread of visceral leishmania."
The parasite is spread between animals and humans by phleboto-mine
sandflies. Scientists predict climate change will extend
suitable conditions for sandflies and the disease will spread.
Spokesperson, Steve Galane, said the agriculture department
was worried about the spread of leishmania to humans, but
only one case of the cutaneous form has been reported in
a person, in the Western Cape in 1979. The visceral form
was diagnosed in a dog from Durban in 1964, and in another
from the Free State in 1987.
Galane said positive tests on imported dogs started increasing
dramatically from September last year. There was an acknowledged
10% chance that the Onderstepoort tests were false, so 31
serum samples were sent to a UK laboratory in December.
"The results of the UK tests showed the Onderstepoort
test is possibly over-sensitive. They also showed we must
not disregard positive or suspect positive results from
Onderstepoort, but investigate further."
Onderstepoort was establishing a new test that would give
more consistent results, "but this process takes time".
This is cold comfort for breeders and owners who have had
to put down their pets, or send them to other homes. The
department said 13 dogs had tested positive in the past
four months, but Anna Youds - a Western Cape dog breeder
who started investigating after her Great Dane had to be
sent back to Tanzania - believes there are more.
In November, she put a notice on www.showdogs.co.za asking
people with similar experiences to contact her. "People
whose dogs have been euthanised got in touch. They ranged
from the bitter to the despairing," she said. Dogs
that survived were kept in tiny kennels at quarantine centres
for months before being rerouted to other homes.
Duncan Harmse, a supervisor at import company, Global Paws,
said bringing dogs into South Africa had "become a
nightmare. Testing for leishmania has been done for many
years but suddenly, since last October, just about every
dog tests positive. Something is not right."
Most dogs were given a clean bill of health before arriving
in South Africa and then had to be sent back, at considerable
expense.
South Africa's quarantine facilities usually cater for the
importation of one or two dogs a week, but in the past four
months, 77 dogs were quarantined at the Johannesburg station
alone. Youds said the Cape Town facility was similarly crammed.
Youds imported her three-and-a-half-year-old bitch, Tamu,
from Tanzania last October. Fulton certified her disease-free
before she left Dar es Salaam, but Onderstepoort declared
the leishmania tests positive and Youds was advised: "Your
dog either needs to be euthanised in the quarantine station
or sent back to Tanzania."
Youds persuaded Fulton to adopt Tamu and he now plans to
send new blood samples for testing in the UK.
Other pet owners have not been so lucky: Youds has met people
who have had to rehome their pets overseas. A man from India
turned down his new engineering job in South Africa and
went back when he learnt he could not settle here with his
two dogs.
Youds said dogs from Europe did not have to go into quarantine
here or be tested by Onderstepoort, despite the fact that
leishmania is particularly prevalent in the Mediterranean
countries.
