Cause of dogs' deaths after woodlands walks was "definitely natural"

THE cause of death of several dogs who died after being walked in Notts woodlands is "definitely natural", Notts County Council has been told.

At least two dogs died last autumn, while eight died the same time the previous year after being walked in Sherwood Forest and Clumber Park. More have fallen ill but survived.

At the Notts County Council communities and environment standing committee meeting yesterday , the Forestry Commission updated the council on the progress of their findings.

Jo Atkinson, from the Commission, said a cause for the so-called seasonal canine illness was still unknown.

But she said: "We have ruled out man-made poisons and we believe the problem is definitely a natural one and it also appears to be seasonal.

"Forest chiefs are also in talks with Nottingham University's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science to look at setting up a research project to shed light on the illness.

"It seems quite a dramatic illness. We had not heard of anything like this before."

She said there was nothing to suggest that what caused the illness could be harmful to humans.

She also said the problem had been reported in other parts of the country including Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, South Yorkshire and East Anglia.

"We have joined forces with the Environment Agency, National Trust, Notts Wildlife Trust, Notts County Council and Ashfield and Mansfield District Councils to try to solve the riddle," she said.

The dogs' symptoms included vomiting, diarrhoea and excessive salivation.

The county council has now set up a sub group to gather evidence, and four councillors have volunteered to be part of the group.

Councillor Geoff Merry, who chaired the meeting, said: "More often than not it's the county council that gets asked all the questions and I think we want to be well informed about what's going on.

"We will pull the sub group together as quickly as we can and see what we can do."

The Animal Health Trust, a charity that helps dogs, cats and horses, created an online questionnaire for people to report incidents where pets fell ill or died.

A spokeswoman for Natural England, which has previously been involved in the investigation, said: "In the absence of evidence for pesticide or chemical poisoning we will not be conducting a separate investigation into the incidents that have been recently reported."

For more information or to fill in a questionnaire go to http://www.aht.org.uk/seasonal_illness.html.

Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/32715/f/503354/s/1206e7b7/l/0L0Sthisisnottingham0O0Cnews0CCause0Edeath0Edogs0Edefinitely0Enatural0Carticle0E31393260Edetail0Carticle0Bhtml/story01.htm

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