OSLO, September 9 (WNM) - 23 dogs have died after having bloody diarrhea, says emergency and safety director Jorun Jarp at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute according to national broadcaster NRK. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has received reports of sick dogs from all over the country.
The Norwegian Kennel Club said owners were so concerned about the spread of the illness over the weekend that its website crashed under the weight of demands for information. There are an estimated 500,000-600,000 dogs in Norway: "When the news of the dog disease became known, our website went down. Now we see that around 120,000 readers daily to get news updates", says Assistant Director Marianne Ono Njøen of the Norwegian Kennel Club to NRK.
"From colleagues in the field we have received answers about 21 dogs who have died from bloody diarrhea", says Emergency and Safety Director Jorun Jarp at the Veterinary Institute.
She says it is possible there are several cases across the country and is concerned that dogs that are initially healthy and who are vaccinated will get sick.
In addition, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority received two reports on Saturday about dogs that have died from the same symptoms: “We currently know that there is a common pattern with very bloody intestinal inflammation. In three of the dogs we have detected two bacteria in the intestine, which coincides with the culture results we have obtained after bacteriological examination”, says Jorun Jarp at the Veterinary Institute.
Jarp says one of the two bacteria found is known to be able to produce toxins.
According to Ole-Herman Tronerud of the Food Safety Authority, it is currently too early to say whether the new cases can be linked to each other.
The new cases are again spread around the country. The dogs live in Nordland, Bergen, Hedmark, Trondheim and Sørlandet.
So far, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority has no details on where in southern Norway this is being talked about.
Veterinarian Hannah Jørgensen says she has faith in getting to the bottom of the mystery: “But we have to work systematically. This is difficult because we have so far not found any common features that are quite obvious from laboratory analyzes.”
She says there are many threads that need to be gathered. The dogs that have fallen ill are from many different places in the country and they have been drinking and eating different things. “We also do not have clear labriatory results, so we have no conclusion”, says Jørgensen.
The Norwegian Food Safety Authority does not know if the new cases that were reported on Friday evening are entirely new cases, or whether they are somewhat back in time.