Journal of Animal Health and Behavioural Science

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus spread by mosquitos. Human Chikungunya disease (CHIK) is distinguished by a sudden onset of high fever, a cutaneous rash, myalgia, and debilitating polyarthralgia. Until recently, the virus was thought to be endemic only to Africa and Asia, but since 2004, CHIK has spread to previously non-endemic regions such as Europe and the Americas, posing a global health threat. Despite the fact that several CHIKV vaccine candidates have been tested in animals and a few have advanced to human clinical trials, no licenced vaccine is currently available for disease prevention. We review recent efforts in CHIKV vaccine development and discuss regulatory considerations for CHIKV vaccine licensure under US FDA regulations in this article.

As veterinary palliative care evolves over the next decade, I hope to see a strong emphasis on the individual patient maintained. So far, the nascent field has focused primarily on the bereaved family and the burnt-out and compassion-fatigued veterinary team. I've attended professional conferences where the content was heavily weighted toward dealing with depressed families, memorialising deceased animals, performing euthanasia, and teaching veterinarians and nurse’s self-care skills, with few to no lectures on how to identify behavioural signs of distress or better understand the emotional lives of animal patients. The literature on pet loss and bereavement is many times larger and more robust than the literature on assessing quality of life.