An outbreak of fatal hemorrhagic pneumonia caused by Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus in shelter dogs

Abstract

An outbreak of fatal hemorrhagic pneumonia with 70~90% morbidity and 50% mortality occurred in an animal shelter in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, Korea. Clinically, the affected dogs showed severe respiratory distress within 48 h after arriving in the shelter. The dead were found mainly with nasal bleeding and hematemesis. At necropsy, hemothorax and hemorrhagic pneumonia along with severe pulmonary consolidation was observed, though histopathological analysis showed mainly hemorrhagic bronchopneumonia. Lymphoid depletion was inconsistently seen in the spleen, tonsil and bronchial lymph node. Gram-positive colonies were shown in blood vessels or parenchyma of cerebrum, lung, liver, spleen, and kidney. Also, Streptococcus (S.) equi subsp. zooepidemicus was isolated from the various organs in which the bacterium was microscopically and histologically detected. In addition, approximately 0.9 Kb specific amplicon, antiphagocytic factor H binding protein, was amplified in the bacterial isolates. In this study, we reported an outbreak of canine hemorrhagic bronchopneumonia caused by S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus in an animal shelter in Yangju, Korea.

Clones of Streptococcus zooepidemicus from Outbreaks of Hemorrhagic Canine Pneumonia and Associated Immune Responses

“…The clonal nature of outbreaks of S. zooepidemicus pneumonia in shelters was first recognized in Nevada and was confirmed in a Korean outbreak (3,4). The MLST, SzP, and SzM data based on multiple randomly selected isolates from the Nevada and Pennsylvania outbreaks are consistent with these earlier conclusions.…”

“…Sporadically recognized in the late 1970s as a serious and highly fatal disease of racing greyhounds in the United States, acute fatal pneumonia with septicemia caused by S. zooepidemicus has recently emerged as a major disease in shelter dogs in North America and elsewhere (1,3,4,16). Epizootics involving hundreds of animals in shelters in Nevada, Pennsylvania, New York, and Wisconsin have required intensive control measures, including complete depopulation and disinfection.…”

“…These clonal outbreaks differed from those observed in dogs in that equine mortality rates were very low. Disease in dogs is characterized by fibrinosuppurative necrotizing hemorrhagic changes in the lung, vascular damage with hemorrhage, pleural effusion, and bacterial emboli in blood vessels (4).…”

“…zooepidemicus) have caused epizootics of highly fatal hemorrhagic pneumonia in racing greyhounds and dogs in shelters and research colonies in North America, the United Kingdom, and Korea (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). At least 2 shelter epizootics were shown to be caused by single clones of S. zooepidemicus (3,4). Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of isolates from persistent outbreaks in a United Kingdom shelter revealed the predominance of sequence type 10 (ST-10) from 1999 to 2002 and ST-62 from 2007 to 2010 (6).…”

Acute fatal haemorrhagic pneumonia caused by Streptococcus equi zooepidemicus in greyhounds in Ireland with subsequent typing of the isolates

“…This bacterium is not regarded as a commensal in the tonsillar flora in dogs (Devriese and others 1992), but has been linked to cases of acute fatal haemorrhagic pneumonia in dogs (Webb and others 2008). Outbreaks of haemorrhagic pneumonia due to S zooepidemicus have been described in large dog populations and dog kennels in South Korea (Kim and others 2007, Byun and others 2009), the UK (Chalker and others 2003) and the USA (Pesavento and others 2008). These outbreaks were characterised by cases of acute severe respiratory distress resulting in high mortality rates despite intensive treatment.…”