Domestic Dog loose on Fraser Island. 30/12/09

Wildlife authorities fear an escaped cattle dog could spread a potentially deadly disease through Fraser Island's dingo population. The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) says the cattle dog has not been sighted since escaping on Saturday from its home in Eurong, on the south of the island. Regional manager Rob Allan told AAP the escapee had been brought to the township illegally because domestic dogs are banned from the World Heritage-listed island. The QPWS said it was not searching for the dog because it could be anywhere. The Fraser Island Association says that in order to escape the dog would have had to breach a dingo fence surrounding the township. The association's president David Anderson said the fence was supposed to be electrified, but was ineffectual because it had been covered in sand for two months.
"The concern is, domestic animals can carry diseases and transmit them to dingoes that they come in contact with and the dingoes don't necessarily have immunity or resistance," Mr Anderson told AAP. "Potentially it is an ecological disaster. "It could wipe out or at least decimate the population of dingoes if there was a disease the dog was carrying." In the late 1970s, parvovirus spread by domestic dogs had a devastating impact on the island's dingo population. The virus can kill dogs and dingoes through gastrointestinal tract damage and dehydration. *9News