Go Slow - a CFS-like disease of dogs

[Hutan]

I'm interested in diseases of animals that might be similar to ME/CFS, as I think it is likely that humans are not the only mammals to suffer from this disease or collection of diseases.

This morning on the radio (Radio NZ) I heard about a disease called 'Go Slow' which has been affecting dogs fed wild pork, mainly in the north of New Zealand. This news item was prompted by a case of three people becoming extremely sick after eating wild pork.

A vet, Jenni Petersen, and a PhD student, Hayley Hunt, seem to have been the main investigators of Go Slow.

They think that pigs may be eating a toxic plant and that this affects the dogs soon after eating the pig meat. Mitochondria are affected and the symptoms are most apparent when dogs are exercised. The treatment is rest; vitamin B is thought to help a little, but some dogs never recover.

http://www.nzpighunting.org.nz/sites/default/files/news/Issue51_The Grunt.pdf

You’ve just got home from a successful hunt and the dogs are in their kennels, happily chewing on some meat and bones from a wild pig you caught. The next morning you plan to go hunting again, but the dogs are shaking and struggling to stand, and one has vomited. They seem to get worse after you let them out of the kennels and sit down after walking a few steps.

By the following day, the shaking has mostly stopped, but the dogs have no energy. Most of them recover over the following few weeks, but still struggle to keep up at the end of a long hunt. Several months later, one dog still can’t hunt properly. You try some vitamin supplements recommended by the vet and it seems to help a bit, but he never quite returns to full form.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/loc...hau-vet-works-on-cure-for-dog-illness-go-slow

The problem started to be identified in the mid-1990's. The online references I could find on this are dated around 2015. But the vet, Jenni Petersen, was saying very clearly this morning that there are no answers as yet, and there needs to be a lot more effort made to find out what is going on.

 

[MErmaid]

Makes sense

IMO understanding Anthropology is vitally important. Humans didn’t just show up one day on earth. We evolved and adapted; it’s estimated that the earliest form of life was 4100 Million (4.1 billion) years ago. It’s estimated that eukaryote formed 2100 Million (2.1 billion) years ago.