Canine Parvovirus is a devastating disease that affects thousands of dogs in Australia every year and many more worldwide, causing severe haemorrhagic enteritis, immune suppression, and death in approximately 50% of cases. In Australia a national disease surveillance system, Disease WatchDog, has been established to record cases of disease, measure prevalence and track outbreaks. The system maps disease occurrences online in real time, allowing communication of disease outbreaks among the veterinary profession and the public.

In 2010 and 2011, there were 1,618 and 1,112 cases of Canine Parvovirus reported across Australia respectively (all states and territories). The coverage of this disease surveillance system is still expanding and the true number of cases is likely to be substantially higher. Several areas have been identified as “high risk” areas for Canine Parvovirus including rural and central NSW where clustering of Canine Parvovirus case reports occurs over time. Disease trends are now able to be tracked for the first time in Australia. This provides critical information that allows veterinarians to anticipate outbreaks and thus implement strategic preventative vaccination programs in at-risk areas.