1,000 Dog Skulls Found In Ayutthaya

An interesting insight from today�s Bangkok Post �

Dog meat as a �secret ingredient� � the health implications�

There is a growing body of evidence highlighting the significant risk the trade, slaughter, and consumption of dogs pose to human health. For example, the trade in dogs for meat has been linked to outbreaks of trichinellosis, cholera and rabies, and slaughtering, butchering, and even consuming, dogs increases people�s exposure to these diseases.

Over recent years in Vietnam, for example, there has been a number of large-scale cholera outbreaks directly linked to the dog meat trade. This has led to warnings from both the Central Bureau of Preventative Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) that the movement of dogs and consumption of dog meat facilitated the spread of the bacteria that causes cholera (Vibrio cholerae), with the WHO stating that eating dog meat was linked to a twenty-fold increase in the risk of contracting the disease.

Rabies is a viral disease spread from animals (usually dogs) to humans, which is nearly always fatal. It represents a serious public health and animal welfare problem around the world, but is most commonly found in Asia, where an estimated 39,000 people die of rabies every year.

With rabies remaining endemic in most countries in the region, many of the dogs traded for human consumption are likely to be infected with the disease. The national and international transportation of dogs used for meat means that infections are easily spread.

The presence of the rabies virus in dogs destined for human consumption has been revealed in studies carried out in slaughterhouses and markets within China, Vietnam and Indonesia.

The illegal trade fails to comply with national animal disease prevention measures, and is in breach of rabies control and elimination recommendations by key human and animal health advisory organisations such as the World Health Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and the dog meat trade has specifically been cited as a contributing factor to recent rabies outbreaks in both China and Indonesia within various studies and by the World Health Organisation.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/352571/meat-may-have-gone-into-meat-balls-villagers-say



More than 1,000 dog skulls have been discovered on a vacant area used as a garbage dump in Ayutthaya province, raising suspicions that the meat could have been used to make meat balls, a report said on Thursday.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/352571/meat-may-have-gone-into-meat-balls-villagers-say

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