Over 200 Dogs In US States Fell Ill With Mysterious Respiratory Disease

Animal experts found out that more than 200 dogs in the United States fell sick due to a mysterious respiratory sickness.

Experts said the illnesses of dogs were reported from Washington, Oregon and California to New Hampshire, Florida and Pennsylvania.

They said that since the middle of August, the American Veterinary Medical Association noted that veterinarians in Oregon have already reported more than 200 cases of respiratory sickness among dogs.

(Photo : Getty Images/Nhac Nguyen)

Atypical Canine Respiratory Sickness

Medical experts said that the mysterious illness was described as an "atypical canine infectious respiratory disease," by the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

The symptoms include coughing, sneezing, eye or nose discharge and lethargy.

The cause behind a canine infectious respiratory disease that began circulating in the Portland metro and Willamette Valley areas of Oregon a few months ago remains a mystery, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

So far, Dr. Ryan Scholz, Oregon state veterinarian, has been working with reporting veterinarians and specialists at Oregon State University's Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine, the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (OVDL), and the Department of Agriculture's National Veterinary Services Laboratory (USDA NVSL) to find the causative agent behind these cases.

Experts said that based on the epidemiology of the cases reported at this point, the cases appear to share a viral etiology, but common respiratory diagnostic testing has been largely negative.

They added that a handful of cases do test positive for M. cynos, but that agent is not believed to be the underlying causative agent.

The cases reported to ODA appear to primarily fall within the following clinical syndromes:

Chronic mild to moderate inflammation of the trachea lasting six to eight weeks or longer, which is minimally or not responsive to antimicrobials;
Chronic pneumonia that is minimally or not responsive to antimicrobials; and
Acute pneumonia that rapidly becomes severe and often leads to poor outcomes in as little as 24 to 36 hours.

Veterinarians on the Job

The ODA has asked veterinarians to report cases to the department as soon as they can and they also recommended that pet owners consult their veterinarian if they suspect that their dog is suffering from any sickness.

At present, the ODA is working with pathologists and virologists at the OVDL as well as the NVSL to implement a diagnostic testing plan in these cases.

Complicating matters, however, is that in most cases tested to date, it appears that the period of shedding may already be passed by the time cases are seen by the reporting veterinarians.

To address this limitation, the ODA has already connected with several emergency veterinary practices to begin widespread sampling of potential respiratory cases, which will be paired with PCR testing using generic primers, virus isolation, and rapid whole genome sequencing in hopes of diagnosing an etiologic agent.

The ODA is also working with an animal rescue entity in the Salem area, which had several cases within their rescue population, to collect samples for serology.

The OVDL will be testing these samples using broad serologic tests to hopefully narrow down the pool of potential etiologic agents.