Purpose

Brucella canis is a bacterium that infects the reproductive tract, causes reproductive failure and neonatal death in dogs, and is transmissible to immune-compromised people. The infection is not treatable and can persist in spayed or neutered dogs. To control the spread of disease, it may be necessary to euthanase infected dogs in order to limit exposure to the rest of the breeding population in a kennel. The purpose of the study was to determine if a proportion of dogs within the United Kingdom are seropositive for B. canis.

Methods

Serum samples were collected from two populations: deceased dogs that were submitted to University of Glasgow for routine post-mortem examination and excess serum from samples that were submitted to the Veterinary Diagnostic Service at the University of Glasgow for other serology testing. The samples were collected over a time period of 11 weeks from 13th June 2011 to 26th August 2011, and were selected by convenience. The B. canis rapid slide agglutination test (RSAT) was performed on these serum samples to determine if the dogs had been exposed to the organism. Positive RSAT samples were then further tested with the 2-mercaptoethanol rapid slide agglutination test (2ME-RSAT).

Results

A total number of 54 serum samples were collected, of which 33% (18/54) of the dogs tested were positive using the RSAT. Of the 18 positive on the RSAT, 12 were positive on the 2ME-RSAT.

Conclusion

Based on these results, a small proportion of dogs in the UK are seropositive for B. canis using the RSAT and 2ME-RSAT and further investigation is warranted due to the potentially serious public health issues involved.