Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) descriptions of infection and transmission have been increasing in companion animals in the past year. Although canine susceptibility is generally considered low, their role in the COVID-19 disease cycle remains unknown. In this study, we detected and sequenced a delta variant (AY.3) from a 12-year-old Collie living with owners that previously tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. It is unclear if the dogs’ symptoms were related to SARS-CoV-2 infection or underlying conditions. The whole genome sequence obtained from the dog sample had several unique consensus level changes not previously identified in a SARS-CoV-2 genome that may play a role in the rapid adaptation from humans to dogs. Within the spike coding region, 5/7 of the subconsensus variants identified in the dog sequence were also identified in the closest in-house human reference case. Taken together, the whole genome sequence, and phylogenetic and subconsensus variant analyses indicate the virus infecting the animal originated from a local outbreak cluster. The results of these analyses emphasize the importance of rapid detection and characterization of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in companion animals.

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This study aimed to evaluate the effect of Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086 on the fecal microbiome of healthy adult dogs. Extruded diets containing graded levels of probiotic applied either to the base ration before extrusion or as a topical coating post-extrusion were randomly assigned to ten individually-housed Beagle dogs (7 castrated males, 3 spayed females) of similar age (5.75 ± 0.23 yr) and body weight (12.3 ± 1.5 kg) in a 5 x 5 replicated Latin square with 16-d adaptation and 5-d total fecal collection for each period. Five dietary treatments were formulated to deliver a dose of 0-, 6-, 7-, 8-, or 9-log10 CFU·dog-1·d-1. Fresh fecal samples (n=50) were analyzed by 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing. Community diversity was evaluated in R (v4.0.3, R Core Team, 2019). Relative abundance data were analyzed using a mixed model (v9.4, SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC) with treatment and period as fixed effects and dog as a random effect. Results were considered significant at P < 0.05. Predominant phyla were Firmicutes (mean 81.2% ± 5), Actinobacteria (mean 9.9% ± 4.4), Bacteroidetes (mean 4.5% ± 1.7), Proteobacteria (mean 1.3% ± 0.7), and Fusobacteria (mean 1.1% ± 0.6). No evidence of shifts in predominant phyla, class, family, or genus taxonomic levels were observed except for the Bacillus genus, which had a greater relative abundance (P = 0.0189) in the low probiotic coating and high probiotic coating treatment groups compared to the extruded probiotic group. Alpha-diversity indices (Richness, Chao1, ACE, Shannon, Simpson, Inverse Simpson, and Fisher) and beta-diversity metrics (principal coordinate analysis and multi-dimensional scaling) were similar for all treatments. This data indicates that supplementation with Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086 at a dose of up to 9 log10 CFU·d-1 did not alter the overall diversity of the fecal microbiome of healthy adult dogs over a 21-d period.

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We report two near-complete bovine respiratory syncytial virus genome sequences collected from 10-month-old cattle with respiratory disease in Kansas in December 2021. No other respiratory pathogens were confirmed in the samples. These genome sequences update the currently circulating BRSV field strains in the United States.