Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 22, 1993                   TAG: 9305220091
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FLEA MARKET PUPPY MAY BE RABID

Officials said Friday that a Bassett-area man, Roger King, sold several puppies at the flea market on April 10.

Three of four puppies in the litter are accounted for, officials said, but a fourth, which was sold at the flea market, hasn't been found.

William Shires of the Roanoke Health Department stressed that officials don't know that the missing puppy also has rabies, but want to be sure it is examined by a veterinarian and that the new owner is aware of the rabies found in the litter.

He said there also is some concern that others, particularly children, who handled the infected puppy may be at some risk of exposure. Shires said anyone who gave the dog a casual pat on the head shouldn't be concerned, but that if the puppy had licked an open wound or licked someone's face around the eyes there was a possibility that the virus could have been transmitted.

The puppy that later tested rabid was bought by a Blacksburg woman who took it to a veterinarian about a week later, according to a New River Health District official. The vet put the dog to death after it exhibited "neurological abnormalities," said Vic Marcussen, environmental health program supervisor for the health district.

The dog's brain was first shipped to a state laboratory in Abingdon on April 22. On Apri 24, technicians decided test results were inconclusive and sent the brain to a Richmond lab, which got the same inconclusive readings.

The brain was finally sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, which also got inconclusive results with what is called the fluorescent antibody test, Marcussen said.

The center then performed a more elaborate and time-consuming procedure in which tissue cultures are grown. Three of 24 samples were positive for the rabies virus, Marcussen said, and he was notified Wednesday that the case has been identified as a positive rabies infection.

A second puppy in the litter was sold to a Clifton Forge family. That dog was run over by a truck, officials said, and no tests were possible on it.

The missing puppy also was sold but a fourth went back home with King, officials said. It became sick and died a short time afterward, Shires said, but because there was no suspicion of rabies at the time, it was buried without testing.

In a telephone interview Friday, King said he believes that dog died of "parvo," another viral infection.

He contends the puppy that tested positive for rabies "didn't have it when we sold it."

He said he is suspicious of the test results given their repeated inconclusive findings and the fact that "no other dogs are sick." Two other adult dogs that were penned with the puppies continue to be healthy, he said.

Nevertheless, public health officials warned that anyone who had close contact with the puppies from that litter should call the environmental health section of their health department. The number is 857-7663 in Roanoke, 382-2740 in the New River Valley.