Brucellosis has been recognized as a disease of domestic farm
animals for many years, but was not considered a significant problem with
canines until the increased incidences of abortions and reproductive failures
became apparent in the late 1960s.
Dogs can become infected after the bacteria penetrates the mucous membranes of
the mouth, eye, or vagina. The organism lives intracellularly and locates
itself in tissues which are isolated from the immune system thus the infected
dog does not maintain an antibody titer even though he is harboring the
organism. The disease is transmitted as a venereal disease only when an
infected bitch is in season. The disease may also be spread after abortion or
whelping, by nasal and oral contact with aborted puppies or their membranes.
Newborn puppies can become infected by their dam's milk, although most puppies
have already become infected while they are still in the uterus.
Dogs with
brucellosis will not usually show any signs or be seriously ill. The bacteria
can live in a male's testicles and prostate gland where it will cause infection
and sterility, spreading the bacteria in both his semen and his urine for many
years before showing any obvious signs. A semen evaluation done early in the
course of the disease, will show abnormal sperm and long-term therapy has been
successful in some cases. Without the antibiotic treatment the scrotum may
become enlarged due to fluid accumulation, the dog will occasionally bite or
lick at the area due to pain and irritation from the infection, and have pain
when ejaculating. Males infected for a long time may have small soft testicles,
kidney problems or damage to the nervous system. Some may show signs of
uveitis, an eye problem, with pain, spasm of the eyelid, reddening of the blood
vessels of the conjunctiva, and resistance to light.
Infected females may abort puppies between 49 and 59 days of her pregnancy. Or
she may carry the litter to term and have both dead and live puppies whelped.
Most puppies born live will die within the first few hours and if there are
live puppies, they will show swollen lymph nodes, fever, and convulsions. These
puppies are a major source of infection for future generations of dogs and MUST
be neutered or spayed.
An abortion may go unnoticed due to the dam ingesting the dead fetus but she
will have a grayishbrown discharge lasting as long as six weeks. Brucellosis
should be suspected whenever a bitch fails to conceive after an apparently
successful breeding.
Serological testing has shown to be the quickest and most common way to
diagnose canine brucellosis. The two most common tests are RSAT (rapid slide
agglutination test, and the TAT (tube agglutination test.) The RSAT is a quick
inexpensive test that can be done in your veterinarian's office and negative results
to this test are quite accurate. It can detect the infection in animals as
early as two weeks after infection. As many as sixty-five percent of the dogs
that may test positive with the RSAT test actually do not have the disease
alter a second test by the TAT method due to the cross reactivity of the test
with other bacteria such as the bordatella bronchiseptica, which causes kennel
cough.
Attempts at any form of immunization from brucellosis have not been successful
to date and the only control is elimination or isolation of any infected dog
and a long-term therapy of streptomycin, gentamycin, and tetracycline
combinations.
Source: http://www.ellmangermanshepherds.com/BrucellosisInformation.htm
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