U.S. dog importations during the COVID-19 pandemic: Do we have an erupting problem?

  1. Emily G. Pieracci
  2. Cara E. Williams
  3. Ryan M. Wallace
  4. Cheryl R. Kalapura
  5. Clive M. Brown

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Abstract

Dog importation data from 2018–2020 were evaluated to ascertain whether the dog importation patterns in the United States changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically with regard to denial of entry. Dog denial of entry reports from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2020, stored within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Quarantine Activity Reporting System (QARS), were reviewed. Basic descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Reason for denial, country of origin, and month of importation were all examined to determine which countries of origin resulted in the largest number of denials, and whether there was a seasonal change in importations during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020), compared to previous years (2018 and 2019). During 2020, CDC denied entry to 458 dogs. This represents a 52% increase in dogs denied entry compared to the averages in 2018 and 2019. Dogs were primarily denied entry for falsified rabies vaccination certificates (56%). Three countries exported 74% of all dogs denied entry into the United States, suggesting that targeted interventions may be needed for certain countries. Increased attempts to import inadequately vaccinated dogs from countries with canine rabies in 2020 may have been due to the increased demand for domestic pets during the COVID-19 pandemic. Educational messaging should highlight the risk of rabies and the importance of making informed pet purchases from foreign entities to protect pet owners, their families, and the public.

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  1. Version published to 10.1371/journal.pone.0254287
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.07.23.453524: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: The protocol was reviewed and approved by the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Institutional Review Board and was conducted consistent with applicable federal law and CDC policy under 45 C.F.R. part 46, 21 C.F.R. part 56; 42 U.S.C. §241(d); 5 U.S.C. §552a; 44 U.S.C. §3501 et seq.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    There were several limitations in this analysis. First, it is unknown how many dogs enter the United States each year – by land, air, or sea. CDC maintains records of the number of dogs denied entry, their characteristics, and the reason for denial, but the total number of dog importations is unknown. QARS is a passive surveillance system and the number of dogs captured in QARS may not be representative of the true number of dogs entering the United States with falsified, inaccurate, or incomplete rabies vaccination records. Second, the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted the number and frequency of dog importations in unique ways. As such, the importation data from 2020 may not be representative of dog importation patterns over time. Importation attempts, especially for dogs under four months of age, may be reduced in the future as the demand for new pets decreases and domestic pets become more readily available for adoption or purchase; however, falsified RVCs was a noticeable problem in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the data from 2019 and 2020 could indicate an emerging issue with dog importations. Airline carrier compliance may also improve once more people begin to fly again. The pandemic has had devastating consequences on the airline industry [23], and it is possible some airline carriers sought to offset losses by transporting more animals. Ultimately, measures to stop the transportation of animals that do not meet US entry requirements should be enforced by...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No funding statement was detected.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.07.23.453524v1 on bioRxiv