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KosAbility: What to know about the new "funky pathogen" dog respiratory illness [1]

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Date: 2023-11-26  

A canine disease that causes coughing, sneezing, and lethargy —and in a few cases death—has been reported in several, widely separated U.S. states and experts are still trying to figure out what it is and how to treat it. Infected dogs usually have a cough, at first, that is sometimes mistaken for “kennel cough,” although testing hasn’t found any of the usual bacterial and viral causes and the unknown disease doesn’t respond to antibiotics. Veterinarians advise people to keep infected dogs isolated for 28 days after symptoms appear and to be aware of the transmission risk in situations like doggie daycare, boarding kennels, and dog park encounters.

A mysterious illness is sickening dogs in several states. Some are dying.

...hundreds of dogs across at least five U.S. states — Colorado, Rhode Island, Oregon, New Hampshire and Massachusetts — thought to have contracted a mysterious respiratory illness that experts are scrambling to understand. Very little is known about the illness, but veterinarians say it usually starts with a cough that might last for weeks, then progresses to pneumonia (visible on X-rays) and severe respiratory distress. The disease generally does not appear to respond to antibiotics, and in acute cases of pneumonia, poor outcomes are seen in as little as 24 to 36 hours, according to the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association, which has received more than 200 reports of potential cases. “We don’t know what’s causing it, and we can’t say definitively how it’s being transmitted,” said Lindsey Ganzer, a veterinarian who owns the North Springs Veterinary Referral Center in Colorado. “We just don’t know enough right now.”

A veterinarian pathologist who first encountered the illness in summer 2022 has some clues, reported NPR.

[He] set out to find what was behind the strange illness, collecting samples from clinics and using genetic sequencing techniques to identify a possible pathogen. At first, his search turned up nothing. "We found no known DNA or RNA viruses, no bacterial pathogens, no fungal pathogens," says Needle, "We were sort of at a breaking point." Until finally, a clue: A short segment of DNA belonging to what — as far as Needle can tell — appears to be bacteria that no one has ever described before. "We think this may be a pathogen," he says, "It's something novel. It's in a proportion of the cases. It's funky." Specifically, it appears similar to a genus of bacteria called Mycoplasma, which lack cell walls.

The illness has now been documented in Oregon (over 200 cases since August 2023) and California, and the LA Public Health Department issued a statement.

This respiratory illness is currently known as Atypical Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease (aCIRD). Cases are currently defined as having a negative canine respiratory PCR test panel, which tests for common viruses and bacteria identified in dogs with similar symptoms, PLUS one of the following clinical scenarios: · Chronic mild-moderate respiratory infection that lasts more than six weeks that is minimally or not responsive to antibiotics; · Chronic pneumonia that is minimally or not responsive to antibiotics; or · Acute pneumonia that rapidly becomes severe and often leads to poor outcomes in as little as 24-36 hours. Given the lack of knowledge about the cause of this disease, veterinarians and dog owners are advised to be on the lookout for symptoms such as cough, sneezing, nasal discharge, and lethargy (lack of energy) in their dogs. If a dog is experiencing these symptoms, owners should take the following steps: 1. Contact their pet’s veterinarian so the pet may be evaluated, and, if indicated, the appropriate tests and medications may be provided. 2. Isolate sick dogs at home for a minimum of 28 days past the first day of the onset of illness. Dogs exposed to the sick dog should quarantine at home and away from other dogs for 14 days to monitor them for signs and symptoms of illness. 3. Clean regularly and disinfect surfaces, doorknobs, keyboards, and animal equipment. To disinfect, use an EPA-registered disinfecting product or a stronger bleach solution. 4. Keep the dog home and away from day care, boarding kennels, grooming facilities, and dog parks. 5. If a dog becomes ill after being boarded or being in a facility, owners should take it to a veterinarian for evaluation and they should also notify the facility about the illness.

KosAbility meets monthly at 4pm Pacific time on the last Sunday of each month.

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