The Ramsey Lecture Series at the College of Veterinary Medicine hosted Dr. Cynda Crawford on Wednesday.

The lecture she gave talked about the epidemiology of the H3N8 canine influenza virus.

“H3N8 canine influenza is a common respiratory pathogen in dogs,” she said.

Crawford, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Florida, explained that the disease came from an interspecies transition of H3N8 equine influenza from horses to dogs.

The highly contagious virus causes coughing, sneezing, ocular and nasal discharge and sometimes pneumonia in dogs, but is not fatal.

“The virus is a very quick hit. Its incubation period is between one to four days, and the symptoms won’t always show during that time,” Crawford said.

Crawford said that there are around 80 million dogs in the United States, and most of them have no immunity to the disease.

Crawford did several studies having to do with canine influenza.

One study involved 1,268 dogs from 42 states, though not evenly.

The study found that exposure in shelters and boarding kennels, location of geographical areas and year of testing were all associated with positive diagnosis of H3N8 canine influenza virus.

“These results justify the need for continued surveillance,” Crawford said.

Another study she conducted was creating a math model for the transmission of canine influenza in animal shelters.

“We simulated the conditions of an open admission shelter that continually admitted animals and animals continually exited,” she said.

In the simulation, she said they set parameters for both direct and indirect transmission and simulated one infected dog coming into the shelter.

The results of 99.6 percent of the simulations showed the virus becoming an epidemic.

The results also showed that the larger the shelter population, the more dogs get infected and that indirect virus transmission was the most dominant driver for the occurrence of epidemics.

Overall, the lecture was an interesting experience for the students who attended, whether it was on their own or for class credit.

“I came to this lecture because it’s related to my field. I’m working with the equine virus. I thought it was interesting because the way they studied the virus is different than the way I study it,” said Jerry Chavez, graduate in animal science.