21 October BBC1 Countryfile SCI Feature

Investigation into seasonal canine illness to feature on BBC’s Countryfile


Make sure you tune into BBC1’s Countryfile on Sunday 21 October for information about our investigation into seasonal canine illness (SCI).

As part of his ‘Investigates…’ series, Tom Heap speaks with Dr. Richard Newton who is spearheading the AHT’s investigation into SCI. Tom will also report from woodlands where suspected cases of SCI have recently been reported. If you are a dog owner who is still unsure about what SCI is, what the clinical signs are and how you can help our investigation into this mystery illness, please watch this episode. You can watch it live on BBC1 on 21 October or when it becomes available on BBC iPlayer for the following week.

You can find further information about our investigation into seasonal canine illness by heading to our website: www.aht.org.uk/sci

Thanks Smokey.. Will do!

I usually watch anyway (although hubby constantly moans about the fact it used to be a farming programme and is now just crap LOL), but will definitely tune in to that episode.

Thanks for the heads up.

Hallelujah ! someone else that agrees with me

My OH just switches off now when I get my "bring back Farming Outlook " hat on, at least it used to be interesting.

The only consistently interesting part is Adam's Farm.

I like Adam's Farm, but hubby moans about him too He has a manager for this and a manager for that, and appears to do very little hands on farming himself at all

Have read in my AHT news letter that there will be a look at SCI on Countryfile this evening 21/10/12 if anyone is interested.

http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=175313

A reminder, this is on in 20 minutes

Thanks for the heads-up! Shall turn it on as a dog has died from this in our area only very recently as we found out yesterday.

Our area always seems to be a hot-spot for this unfortunately - especially Clumber Park and Sherwood Forest.

I've just finished watching Countryfile on BBC1 and watched with interest the section on Season Canine Illness. I personally think they are barking up the wrong tree thinking that Harvest Mites might be to blame.

They are hoping that dog walkers will help out with any relevant info. I have emailed the BBC with my info which is along the lines: According to the experts SCI is only in 4 areas in the UK. Harvest Mites are rife in many areas and most are killed off with frost. The dog that they spoke about (Bearded Collie) one of the dogs that lost its life to what they think was SCI was fit and healthy and suddenly developed sickness and diarrhoea and was dead a matter of hours later. This happened a few days after walking in woods. Surely if this dog had been bitten by Harvest Mites it would have been scratching as their bite is painful and brings up a nasty mark on the skin. I have had 3 bites on my ankle. The fields that surround where I live have been crawling with Harvest Mites this year and one of my dogs has had an allergic reaction, resulting in a steroid injection and no walking on long grass, using Frontline Spray every 3 days etc etc. The reason these mites are called Harvest Mites is that they are prevalent during harvest time. My dog has never been bitten by them in woods, only long grass and hedgerow.
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Surely many more dogs would have been dying of this after walking in fields? I personally err on the side of some sort of fungal spores which dogs are getting from the woods. I'm really glad that SCI is being investigated but I am surprised that the 'expert' who walked in one of the woods where dogs have been getting SCI suddenly 'jumped' on the idea of Harvest Mites just because he was bitten on his ankles by them and never had before.