Heartworm report contested
Garlick, N.L.
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 175(3): 240-247
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-1488 PMID: 500449 Document Number: 149500
This correspondence concerns a special American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) report on the management of canine heartworm disease [see Hm/A 48, 4141]. N.L. Garlick is critical of the report, arguing strongly in favour of pre-treatment with a microfilaricide (whose value the report questioned) and pointing out that dithiazanine iodide is only nephrotoxic if given at 8 times the recommended dose. He also criticizes the AMVA for publishing such reports which he believes have a "repressive effect" on the treatment of disease conditions by practising veterinarians. In reply, R.F. Jackson points out that the treatment regimen (pre-treatment with a microfilaricide) proposed by Garlick is not documented by scientific data. He also believes that the American Heartworm Society, who wrote the report, has an obligation to review all available scientific information and to distill from this a practical approach to the management of the disease.