With the increase in dog ownership over the last couple of years we have not only seen an increase in UK dog breeding, we have also seen an increase in rescue dogs being imported from overseas.

There is no doubt that these rescue dogs often come with sad back stories but I, like most vets, have huge reservations about the number that are now being bought over here.

Different rescue societies follow different guidelines and I have no wish to comment on individual situations, however vets are getting increasingly worried by the diseases and issues that these dogs are bringing to the UK.

As if to highlight our concerns we have recently seen the first case of a disease called Brucella Canis come into the UK via an infected rescue dog; this dog infected other dogs in the household and then infected the human foster carer.

Dogs in the household had to be put to sleep and the owner was hospitalised. This is the first case of dog to human transmission in the UK – Brucella is a nasty bacterial disease that can cause serious illness in humans.

For a while now we vets have been warning that all imported rescue dogs should be tested for Brucella before they leave their country of origin but sadly very few rescue charities do this.

We have also been warning about a disease called Leishmaniasis that we see come over in dogs from continental Europe, again new owners are often unaware that this disease should have been tested for.

As I said at the beginning, different animal welfare charities will have different standards, but I find in general that owners taking on overseas rescues are often woefully underinformed about disease risk.

*Alice Moore is a vet at Castle Veterinary Clinic, Dorchester and Weymouth. Tel 01305 267083