This is the best summary I could come up with:

(tldr: 2 sentences skipped)

When two dogs imported to Canada from Iran on separate occasions in 2021 developed deadly canine rabies, alarm bells rang loudly for public health officials.

(tldr: 2 sentences skipped)

For epidemiologists, cases such as those underscore the importance of surveillance for new strains of viruses and bacteria coming into Canada by way of animals, a subject highlighted in a review paper published in Science Translational Medicine last week.

“It’s pretty concerning for individuals when they’re told that a dog you came in contact with had rabies,” said Dr. Tasha Epp, a veterinarian and epidemiologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon tracking diseases that can be transmitted between animals and humans.

(tldr: 15 sentences skipped)

“You can’t just say, ‘OK, well, if we watch them for a couple of weeks after they arrive, they’re good,’” said Scott Weese, who specializes in infectious diseases at the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph.

(tldr: 18 sentences skipped)

Virology professor Gary Whittaker at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., who co-authored the recent review paper with his colleagues, says the animals that can transmit infections to humans range from companion dogs, cats or horses to wild birds or backyard chickens and other creatures that pass through yards or parks: think raccoons, bats, squirrels, coyotes or skunks.

(tldr: 3 sentences skipped)

Indoors, when a large, dense population of cats or dogs are in close proximity at shelters or moving between foster homes, kennels or doggy daycare, it’s an opportunity for superspreader events of influenza to occur, he said.

(tldr: 6 sentences skipped)

The original article contains 1,176 words, the summary contains 253 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!