Heartworm “Prevention” Propaganda

April was “Heartworm Prevention Month,” brought to you by Big (Vet) Pharma and friends.

But much like vaccine hesitancy, bolstered greatly by the world wide ruse called COVID-19, pet owners are looking more askance at heartworm (HW) prevention.

And, much like the vaccine pushers, the HW drug industry uses propaganda to sell their pesticides.

Texas A&M recently put out some wildly illogical arguments for giving these potent poisons for 12 months of the year.

First, Reality

How much of this scary disease is out there?

This is from Cornell’s Baker Institute: “Approximately 1.5% of dogs in the U.S. are infected with heartworms, although prevalence varies by region.”

Okay, so no where near a runaway epidemic, right? Then, how does it transmit?

As you likely know, it takes mosquitoes to spread this parasite from the infested dog to your non-parasitized dog. Mosquitoes. The summertime bugaboo we know all too well. They have to suck up a blood meal from the HW infested dog, meaning adult worms are present in or around that dog’s heart. Those adult worms shed microscopic larvae, and if those larvae are in that blood meal the mosquito sucks in, and the temperature is right (above 57º F for two solid weeks), those larvae can become infective to your dog.

Sounds like winter would be a HW drug vacation time, right?

Texas A&M University, along with the American HW Society aren’t buying it, even though parasitologists have studied this in depth.

Let’s Try to Sway the Dog Owning Public…

But see if you can read through this wild “logic” in TAMU’s latest missive, with a title you gotta love: “Not every worm follows the rules.”

Its author, Catherine Campbell, DVM, veterinary diagnostician at TAMU’s College Station lab, would like you to know: “Heartworm disease is serious issue (sic)… Heartworm testing is important, and there are wonderful preventatives out there that provide great protection.”

Wonderful? I’ve yet to meet such a pesticide or neurotoxin.

And she’d like you to be suitably scared by a big number: “Currently, more than 100,000 dogs in the U.S. test positive for heartworms each year.”

But, with a bit of digging, you’ll learn the AVMA estimates from 2024 that there are 76,811,305 dogs in the US. So, that means (tap tap) 1.3% of dogs test positive for this disease. Puts that big number down a few notches on the fear scale, right? Here’s TAMU doc’s premise for year round HW pesticide use. And I swear, I’m not making this up.

First, she’d like you to know this is a “misconception: “It’s winter — dogs don’t need heartworm preventive.”

Kind of a gentler, less provoking way to say “misinformation,” which might be more of a trigger word since what we just lived through, where that label was slung against anyone daring to knock the narrative that COVID-19 was a deadly pandemic with only ONE HOPE to beat.

But, let the fun begin… tell us why this is misinformation a misconception, doc.

Point #1: “It’s been detected in non-native dogs in Alaska…There are mosquitoes up there too.”

Uh huh, right.

So, the native dogs don’t carry it, but we’ve seen some dogs visiting from, say, Florida or Louisiana that were POSITIVE for HW.

And? Would you like us to infer from that that HW is a serious risk in AK?? Or anywhere with, you know, winter? Let’s look at an incidence map, shall we? Here’s a colorful one from 2023, from the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC).