The County of Los Angeles Department of Animal Care and Control has made an announcement of their awareness of the recent outbreak of Canine Influenza in several locations in Los Angeles County and how they plan to combat the outbreak.

Officials with Animal Control believe this outbreak was a result of an importation of infected dogs from Asia.

H3N2 is highly contagious to dogs and although none of our animals at our animal care centers are infected, they are taking this issue seriously and are adopting proactive steps to prevent an outbreak in our animal care centers.

For the last three years, their medical program included regular random testing for common respiratory pathogens and we have not found the Canine Influenza virus in our animal population. DACC has a stringent biosecurity program which includes evaluation of animals on intake to separate sick animals from the healthy population, regular medical rounds, and use of disinfectants recommended by industry experts. In the light of the new threat, DACC is enforcing a stricter medical evaluation process and adding the Canine Influenza vaccine to the core vaccines given on intake.

They highly recommend pet owners to have their dogs vaccinated for CI, and make sure their pets get the required two doses given two-three weeks apart. Their animal care centers have low cost vaccine clinics (please see our website for the schedule at your local animal care center) and will be making the CI vaccine available to the public.

If you have any concerns, please contact or visit the animal care centers.