THE organisers of one of the biggest dog shows in the country have moved to calm speculation that a pedigree canine attended the event with a highly contagious deadly disease.

Sarah Allsopp, chairman of the three-day Darlington Dog Show, said they had not been informed of any cases of parvovirus before or after the event attended by 7,500 dogs at Ripon Racecourse last weekend.

Rumours that a giant schnauzer had been confirmed as having the disease following the show appear to have begun to circulate on Tuesday.

A message was posted by a member of the petforums.co.uk website, using the name Tigerneko, which appeared to be warning people set to attend the Driffield Dog Show, in East Yorkshire, which starts today, Thursday, September 19).

It stated: "I've heard that if you have been around an infected dog or suspect your dog is infected, you should avoid contact with other dogs for three weeks afterwards, but obviously some will ignore this and still go ahead to upcoming shows."

Other members of the forum asked for details of who had confirmed the outbreak, but none were given.

It is understood about 20 giant schnauzers competed in nine classes at the show.

Mrs Allsopp, of Washington, Tyne and Wear, said she thought it "extremely unlikely" that a dog attending the show had the disease.

She said: "Our vet, who is extremely diligent, would have investigated the matter immediately and informed us.

"If there had been a dog with parvo somebody would have gone to the vet to report their concerns and it would have been resolved on the show field, we would have dealt with it like responsible people."