HoustonChronicle.com - New canine flu is spreading across the U.S.

If there wasn't enouugh to worry about already.

HoustonChronicle.com - New canine flu is spreading across the U.S.: "Dr. Cynda Crawford, an immunologist at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine who is studying the virus, said it spreads most easily where dogs are housed together, but it can be passed on the street, in dog runs or even by a human transferring it from one dog to another. Kennel workers have carried the virus home with them, she said.

How many dogs die from the virus is unclear, but scientists said the fatality rate is more than 1 percent and could be as high as 10 percent among puppies and older dogs.

Crawford first began investigating greyhound deaths at a racetrack in Jacksonville, Fla., in January 2004, where eight of the 24 greyhounds who contracted the virus died.

'This is a newly emerging pathogen, and we have very little information to make predictions about it,' she said"