Outbreak and control of haemorrhagic pneumonia due to Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus in dogs

Abstract

FIG 1: Lung from a dog with a history of epistaxis and respiratory distress. All the lobes are haemorrhagic and moist, with consolidation. Scale=cm

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

“…zooepidemicus . The lesions were similar to those as described by previous reports [7-9,11]. However, the degree of lesions was varied across individuals.…”

“…zooepidemicus has been recently reported in animal shelter in USA [10,11] and a research kennel in Korea [9]. These pathogen have been isolated from horses, cows, pigs, sheep, guinea pigs and domestic fowls as well as dogs, and can be transmitted between species [8].…”

“…The cause of kennel cough has been inferred to the infectious microbes and environmental stresses such as transportation and crowding [4,8]. Especially, transportation and viral infections may cause good conditions for bacterial colonization in the lung [9]. …”

“…On the other hand, the animal shelter should be consider decreasing the population in severely affected facilities and the decrease of total number of dogs in each room of the facility. In previous report [9], authors suspected a similar outbreak occurred in the private kennels that had supplied the dogs. It was confirmed that canine hemorrhagic pneumonia caused by S. equi subsp.…”

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.…”