01480: Leptospirosis: An Emerging Health Concern for Field Trial and Hunting Dogs
Grant Status: Closed
Project Summary
Leptospirosis is a re-emerging infectious disease of dogs, people, and wildlife. Infected dogs may develop acute renal failure but also multiple-organ failure and even death. This is one of the most commonly diagnosed infectious diseases in dogs at UC Davis. We now have vital information about hot spots for risk of canine leptospirosis as well as epidemiological information including breed and vaccination status for affected dogs, exposure routes, and serovars. Importantly, we demonstrate that small dog breeds are indeed vulnerable to leptospirosis and thus vaccine protocols need to include them. We have ongoing surveillance in these hot spots to detect cases in order to obtain bacterial isolates and critical data on patterns of leptospiral infection in blood and urine. One promising aspect of ongoing research is the interaction of canine and wildlife leptospirosis, and whether some wild animals that may enter yards and suburban landscape could be a source of infection to dogs. Our data to date implicate squirrels and skunks, although other wildlife species or domestic farm animal species may be important sources to dogs even in their home yards. Further molecular characterization of infection will help us understand this linkage. The most important jobs in our to-do for Leptospira research at present are to use molecular techniques to understand dog-wildlife risk and to continue surveillance and use molecular approaches to determine the pathophysiology of infection by west-coast strains of Leptospira in dogs.
Publication(s)
Hennebelle, J. H., Sykes, J. E., Carpenter, T. E., & Foley, J. (2013). Spatial and temporal patterns of Leptospira infection in dogs from northern California: 67 cases (2001–2010). Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 242(7), 941–947. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.242.7.941
Hennebelle, J. H., Sykes, J. E., & Foley, J. (2014). Risk Factors Associated with Leptospirosis in Dogs from Northern California: 2001–2010. Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, 14(10), 733–739. https://doi.org/10.1089/vbz.2014.1624
Help Future Generations of Dogs
Participate in canine health research by providing samples or by enrolling in a clinical trial. Samples are needed from healthy dogs and dogs affected by specific diseases.
