Help stop canine brucellosis

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is urging veterinarians to play a major role to help stop the spread of canine brucellosis, a contagious and incurable bacterial infection most often found in breeding kennels.

The agency’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service released best practices for veterinarians and kennel operators who may encounter the disease, which causes infertility and miscarriages in dogs.

Source: Veterinary Practice News, November 17, 2015 and January 2016.

The guidelines emphasize the need to:

• Wear single-use gloves during breeding and whelping.
• Properly disinfect kennels.
• Quarantine newly purchased breeding dogs and test them upon entry and eight weeks later. Two negative tests are required before the animals are released into the general population.
• Permanently remove all positive dogs from the kennel.
• Keep breeding dogs at the kennel unless an urgent veterinary visit is needed. Female dogs should not be loaned out for breeding.
• Make kennel visitors wear clean clothing and protective shoe covers, disinfect their shoes, and wash their hands.
• Never rehome a brucellosis-positive dog.