Fatal pneumonia caused by extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli in a young dog

Abstract

This paper describes a fatal case of pneumonia in a 14-day-old dog caused by extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC). The necropsy showed that almost all of left lobes of the lungs had dark-red consolidation. A histopathology examination revealed moderate acute fibrino-hemorrhagic necrotizing pneumonia with intralesional bacterial colonies. Non-suppurative epicarditis, congestion in the liver, and necrosis in the white pulp of the spleen also were found. E. coli with cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 and α-hemolysin was isolated from the lung. This case was confirmed to have fatal pneumonia caused by ExPEC that led to a systemic infection.

Characterization of the pathogenicity of extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli isolates from pneumonia-infected lung samples of dogs and cats in South Korea

“…However, there is limited information on ExPEC-induced pneumonia. We previously reported suspected cases of ExPEC-induced pneumonia in dogs 16 . In addition, cases of E. coli infection in dog 20 and cat 6 lungs have also been reported, and the virulence factors associated with ExPEC are different from those linked to commensal or intestinal pathogenic E. coli strains 4 .…”

“…We previously reported that E. coli isolated from the lungs of a dog with acute pneumonia in South Korea contained CNF1s and hemolysins. This was categorized as a case of ExPEC pneumonia-induced mortality in the absence of other infections 16 . However, there are limited number of ExPEC cases to establish the correlation between pneumonia and ExPEC, particularly the correlation between the frequency of occurrence of virulence factors and bacterial pneumonia-induced mortality.…”