Weekly companion animal news: February 12, 2024

Experts worry about pet owner rabies vaccine hesitancy

With a rise in vaccine hesitancy and a decline in vaccine uptake, some researchers fear there might be a spillover effect among pet owners who then choose to forgo rabies vaccines for their cats and dogs. “We’re aware that we live in a world where rabies transmission is relatively low,” said Matthew Motta, an assistant professor of health law, policy and management at Boston University. “But we worry very much about a world in which that won’t be the case, and the way you get there is through vaccine hesitancy.” Very few humans die in the United States from rabies, but that is no accident, said Dr. Rodney Rohde, Regents’ professor and global fellow at Texas State University. “It’s really tied to our really largely successful dog and cat vaccine programs and livestock to a lesser extent over the last 50 years,” Rohde told PBS NewsHour.

Cats gain clout in pet market, Packaged Facts finds

The percentage of U.S. households owning pets fell from 54% in 2019 to 51% in 2023, Packaged Facts estimates. Dog ownership trends are responsible for the trend, falling from 42% in 2018 to 38% over this period. Historical data shows a gradual ramp-up in dog population has been occurring for decades, but the trend peaked before the pandemic hit. According to Packaged Facts pet market analyst David Sprinkle, “Longer-term data suggests that there is no simple or enduring relationship between macroeconomic downturns and pet population trends.” In contrast to dog ownership rates, cat ownership has fluctuated relatively moderately over the last decades, hovering in the 21-24% range. Unlike dog ownership, moreover, cat ownership rates have inched upward since the pandemic, and correspondingly have emerged as an important driver to pet market growth, according to Packaged Facts.

Having a dog leads to more physical activity in children, study finds

A new study finds that getting a family dog is linked with a big jump in physical activity in younger children—especially in young girls, NPR reports. In the study, researchers followed 600 children over a three-year period, starting at preschool age. They tracked the children’s physical activity using monitors that measured things like how fast, long and intensely they moved. They also surveyed parents about their children’s activities and whether they had a family dog. Not surprisingly, both boys and girls in the study engaged more frequently in activities like dog walking and playing in the yard after getting a dog. But the impact was particularly pronounced in girls. Conversely, girls whose dog died during the study experienced a drop in their daily physical activity by 62 minutes a day.

Elanco to sell aqua business to Merck

Elanco Animal Health has agreed to sell its aqua business to Merck Animal Health for approximately $1.3 billion in cash, representing approximately 7.4 times the estimated 2023 revenue of the Elanco aqua business, according to the announcement. The transaction reinforces Elanco’s focus on its most significant value creation opportunities, notably in pet health and livestock sustainability. In addition to the expected U.S. approvals in the first half of 2024 for Credelio Quattro, Zenrelia and Bovaer, Elanco’s targeted areas of focus include next-generation products for pet parasiticides, dermatology and pain, as well as livestock sustainability. Additionally, the company is pursuing platform-aligned targets such as monoclonal antibodies and other major emerging spaces of high unmet need.

Hill’s Pet Nutrition and veterinarians sued over health marketing

Colgate-Palmolive’s pet food unit, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, has been hit with a proposed class-action lawsuit accusing it of conspiring with veterinarians to disparage smaller competitors that sell “non-traditional” dog food, hurting their sales, Reuters reports. Startup brand KetoNatural filed the lawsuit in Kansas federal court against Hill’s Pet Nutrition and a group of veterinarians. The lawsuit asserted violations of a federal law that prohibits false advertising. According to the complaint, Hills has conspired to make false statements linking “boutique, exotic and grain-free” diets to a greater risk of a deadly canine disease that causes an enlarged heart. Salt Lake City-based KetoNatural said those alleged statements “misrepresented the nature, qualities, and characteristics” of its product. “Defendants’ false claims about the dangers of pet food from smaller manufacturers has scared billions of dollars of business away from smaller manufacturers and into Hill’s coffers,” the lawsuit said.

Penn Vet reduces unpaid student workloads after complaints of burnout

The University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary medical college said it has made changes to limit students’ work hours between on-call shifts after 65 fourth-year students and recent graduates signed a letter to the school administration describing workloads of over 100-hour weeks. In their final year at Penn Vet, students work largely unpaid clinical rotations at the institution’s two hospitals: the New Bolton Center, a large-animal hospital in Chester County, which treats horses and other farm animals, and Ryan Veterinary Hospital in University City, which treats cats, dogs and other companion animals. One major concern for students centered on treatment shifts, where students perform nursing duties, such as walking dogs and cleaning litter boxes, on top of their clinical rotations. Students said there was little educational benefit to these shifts and that they felt they were being used to address a persistent nursing shortage, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Alaska will soon have its first veterinary technician degree program

A new Mat-Su College course intended to remedy a shortage of veterinary technicians across Alaska will be offered in September, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The University of Alaska Anchorage veterinary technician program will run 2 ½ years, or six semesters, and is open to 16 students, according to professor Dr. Judith Montalbano, who has worked at private clinics in the Mat-Su and helps oversee the college’s current veterinary assisting certification program. The application deadline is March 1. All classes will be in-person in Mat-Su, she said. There are currently no vet tech or veterinary degree programs held in-person completely in Alaska. The University of Alaska Fairbanks runs a four-year veterinary medicine program in which students split time with Colorado State University. And while some vet tech programs are available online, they lack the hands-on experience Montalbano said is critical to learning animal care.

Free public veterinary clinics to be established across Mexico

A law to establish free public veterinary clinics across Mexico has gone into effect following publication in the government’s official bulletin, entitling Mexican pets to emergency free care, Mexico News Daily reports. State and local entities have 180 days to comply with the decree, which says pets must be provided with free preventive medical care such as sterilization and emergency medical treatment as needed. Regular treatments will still cost money. In Mexico, 70% of households have some type of pet, according to a 2021 survey by the national statistics agency, INEGI.

SoundByte: Restore, made by Noxsano

Restore, nitric oxide accelerated wound healing from Noxsano, works for longer than other wound healing agents and provides infection control, including against resistant bacteria. It’s clinically proven to drive 40% faster healing, according to the company. Read more in the SoundByte from Veterinary Advantage.