Dog euthanized in Spain after owner contracts Ebola virus

A court order to euthanize a dog belonging to a female health worker in Spain who contracted the Ebola virus was carried out Wednesday. Spanish health authorities reportedly requested the euthanasia as fear of the disease spread from West Africa to Europe. The woman's husband and two other people have been quarantined and the woman is in an isolation unit. She was part of a team that treated two Ebola patients in September at Madrid's Carlos III hospital. Both patients later died in their home country of West Africa.

The response by Spanish authorities to euthanize the dog raises concerns that pets could spread the disease. The Associated Press reported that the patient, identified as Teresa Romero Ramos, and her husband objected to the euthanasia of their mixed-breed dog named Excalibur. While Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has said publicly they have not confirmed transmission of the disease between the patient and her pet, a CDC research study published in March 2005 concludes that transmission of the disease by domestic animals is a possibility.

The study, "Ebola Virus Antibody Prevalence in Dogs and Human Risk," observed dogs that had been highly exposed to Ebola virus by eating infected dead animals during the 2001-2002 outbreak in Gabon, West Africa. "Given the frequency of contact between humans and domestic dogs, canine Ebola infection must be considered as a potential risk factor for human infection and virus spread," the report reads. "Asymptomatically infected dogs could be a potential source of human Ebola outbreaks and of virus spread during human outbreaks, which could explain some epidemiologically unrelated human cases."

It goes on to say that dogs might also be a source of human Ebola outbreaks where the source of disease was unknown. "Together, these findings strongly suggest that dogs should be taken into consideration during the management of human Ebola outbreaks," the authors conclude. However, it is still unclear how much of a risk canine Ebola is to humans.

Many people, from animal lovers to global health experts, opposed the order to euthanize the dog. Interviewed by the Associated Press, Peter Cowen, DVM, PhD, a veterinarian at North Carolina State University and an American Veterinary Epidemiological Society diplomate, says Spanish officials overreacted in ordering the dog to be euthanized. "They should really study it instead. Ebola has never been documented to be spread by a dog," he said, adding that canine transmission was clearly not a major route of spread in the outbreak in Africa.

The American Veterinary Medical Association responded to the dog's euthanasia in Spain on its Facebook page, saying, "The risk that dogs might spread Ebola is very small in the U.S. or other places where dogs aren't near corpses or eating infected animals." The CDC travel notices page-most recently warning travelers to avoid nonessential travel to Sierra Leone, as well as Guinea and Liberia, due to Ebola outbreaks-states that the disease is spread by contact with infected wildlife or raw or undercooked meat from an infected animal.

Texas health commissioner David Lakey, MD, has said about 50 people who had contact with the now late Ebola patient in Dallas are being monitored, but the Texas Department of State Health Services is not monitoring any animals at this time.