A dog has died from the parasitic disease leishmaniasis in what is thought to be the first ever reported case in the UK.
The three-year-old Shih Tzu, who lived in Hertfordshire, became increasingly ill with vomiting, diarrhoea and weight loss over three weeks.
Having never left the British isles, vets suspect the pooch caught the Leishmania infantum parasite from another dog it lived with.
This dog had come over from Spain and was put down six months earlier after developing severe leishmaniasis.
Although dogs cannot transmit leishmaniasis directly to humans, sand flies can act as a reservoir for the infection by biting the popular pets and then passing the infection onto people.
Sand flies are not found in the UK, however, humans infected in tropical regions can endure oozing sores, fever, and even deadly swelling of the liver and spleen.
The three-year-old Shih Tzu, who lived in Hertfordshire, became increasingly ill with vomiting, diarrhoea and weight loss over three weeks. The pooch became infected in the UK (stock)
The dog was examined by a team at the Royal Veterinary College in Hatfield, UK, led by Myles McKenna, from the department of clinical science and services.
'To the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported case of leishmaniosis in the UK in a dog without a history of travel to an endemic area,' they wrote in the BMJ journal Vet Record.
'In an era of increased foreign travel of dogs and increased importation of dogs to the UK, it is likely that the number of dogs seropositive for L infantum will continue to increase.
'Leishmania-infected dogs may present an infection risk to other dogs, even in the absence of natural vectors, as direct transmission between dogs is possible.'
Leishmaniasis is transmitted via sandflies, but infected dogs can spread the disease by biting other canines.
A veterinary examination of the Shih Tzu revealed he was deficient in all three blood cells - red blood cells, which carry oxygen around the body; white blood cells, which make up the immune system; and platelets, which cause blood to clot.
He also had an elevated level of calcium in his blood, as well as an abnormally high amount of the protein globulin, which is usually a sign of liver disease.
Leishmaniasis is a parasitic infection found in tropical and subtropical regions, as well as southern Europe.
The disease is caused by being infected with one of more than 20 Leishmania parasites, which is spread by over 30 species of sand flies.
The most common forms of the condition are cutaneous leishmaniasis - which causes skin sores - and visceral lesihmaniasis - which affects the spleen, liver and bone marrow.
Cutaneous symptoms usually start out as bumps that then ulcerate. These are usually painless.
Visceral
