AHS announces the hottest topics on tap for the 15th Triennial Heartworm Symposium scheduled for September in New Orleans.

Let’s start with the good news: Not all mosquitoes bite. “Female mosquitos need certain proteins found in blood to grow their eggs,” says Joseph Conlon, technical advisor, American Mosquito Control Association. Since males don’t produce eggs, they don’t bite.

Here’s a brief look at the diseases that some types of mosquitos can spread in some parts of the world.

ZIKA

Who is affected Specific numbers are hard to come by, but cases have been reported in more than 36 countries in South America, Mexico, the Pacific Islands and the Caribbean since last spring. As of mid-May, 544 people living in the U.S. have acquired Zika by traveling to an affected area.

ANIMAL WATCH-Heartworm disease is a serious infection that results in severe lung disease, heart failure, other organ damage, and death in pets--mainly dogs--but also cats, coyotes, ferrets, wolves, sea lions, seals and other animals. And, occasionally it infects humans. The worms mature into adults, mate, and produce offspring while living inside the heart, lungs, and associated blood vessels of an infected animal.

Even areas with fewer mosquitos can be hotbeds of heartworm infection.

Q. We don’t see a lot of mosquitoes in my practice area. Is it really necessary to push prevention?
A. Veterinarians often refer to their locales as being “endemic” or “nonendemic” for heartworm. For those in many of the Western and Mountain states, the assumption is that if heartworm historically hasn’t been a problem in the region, there’s no reason to recommend yearly testing or heartworm prevention now. I moved to Phoenix—which is in a supposedly nonendemic region less than 18 months ago. During that time, I’ve performed several surgeries for heartworm caval syndrome on dogs that had never left the Phoenix area.

While heartworm education is a year-round focus of the American Heartworm Society (AHS), many veterinary practices put extra emphasis on heartworm prevention and education in the spring, especially since April is National Heartworm Awareness Month. Therefore, it’s a good time to consider the many resources available to veterinary practices from the AHS.

It happens. It happens a lot. Here are your best practices when a lapse in heartworm preventive delivery occurs.

While a heartworm diagnosis is tough news for dog owners, dogs can be safely and successfully treated. The American Heartworm Society’s 2014 Current Canine Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Management of Heartworm (Dirfilaria immitis) Infection in Dogs treatment protocol calls for, in most dogs, preadulticide treatment with a heartworm preventive (macrocyclic lactones) and doxycycline, as well as three injections of melarsomine to kill the adult worms that threaten the infected dog’s life and long-term health.

(StatePoint) Your dog is your best friend, and you take good care of him, making sure he gets quality food andexercise, immunizations and heartworm medication. Why,then, does your veterinarian also insist on a yearly heartworm test?

Forgetting that monthly preventive—it's so easy to do, even for veterinarians and their own pets (you know you've forgotten a time or two!). Here's why and how to not let clients skip a dose again.