Brewster council considers canine Parvo Vaccination for dog licensing

BREWSTER – The Brewster City Council voted to consider a proposal that would require that all dogs licensed in Brewster show proof of vaccination for the Parvo virus at its regular virtual GoTo Meeting last Wednesday, Jan. 20.

Council member John Housden proposed the requirement as an additional measure to protect the health of dogs in town.

“Parvo is very deadly to dogs,” said Housden. “You get a new puppy and take it to the vet the required shots are a Parvo and the rabies.”

Housden explained that the highly transmittable virus can infect a dog that visits an area where an infected dog has been previously.

Council member Jan May asked if the vaccination requirement was common in most states out of her concern for adding an unnecessary burden on Brewster dog owners.

Mayor Art Smith noted that Parvo “runs rampant in the city of Brewster.”

Housden and Smith clarified that the intent of the proposal is to look into the issue further and, with the assistance of city attorney Chuck Zimmerman, provide more information for council members to consider for a later vote on the matter.

According to the website canineparvovirus.org Parvo is an extremely contagious and resilient virus that affects dogs worldwide and equates to somewhere between the flu and Ebola in humans. The glaring difference between flu in humans and Parvo in dogs is that a healthy human who comes down with the flu usually recovers in a couple of weeks whereas a healthy dog that contracts Parvo succumbs to the virus about 90 percent of the time if not treated.

Canine Parvo is more like Ebola in its deadly consequences. There is no vaccine for Ebola and infected humans can die within 3-5 days. There is a vaccine for Parvo.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that humans cannot catch canine Parvo because the Canine Parvovirus (CPV) cannot replicate in a human host. There is a form of Human Parvovirus called Parvovirus B19.