Across the country, within the veterinary community, there has been a perceived increase in the incidence of an unusual canine respiratory disease. The clinical signs are typical of ‘kennel cough’ with most dogs presenting with cough, fever, and nasal discharge. However, the perceived morbidity rate and the duration of clinical signs are both increased beyond what is typical of canine infectious respiratory disease. Additionally, many veterinarians report that dogs are not responding to the common therapeutics used (such as doxycycline) and an unusually large percentage of these cases are developing pneumonia. Veterinarians and other laboratories within the National Animal Health Laboratory Network are reporting that most of the commonly used diagnostic testing strategies to rule out the well-described pathogens included in the canine infectious respiratory disease complex, are yielding negative results in these cases. The New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and the Hubbard Center for Genome Studies at the University of New Hampshire have been investigating this respiratory syndrome for the past year. Their preliminary data suggest that these cases may be associated with a non-culturable bacterium that is most closely associated to a pathogen implicated in human respiratory disease since 2021. 

The Veterinary Support Services (VSS) team at the Animal Health Diagnostic Center (AHDC) will recruit appropriate diagnostic specimens from 50 dogs who present with acute clinical signs of respiratory disease and a history of interacting with other dogs (for example visiting a dog park or boarding facility within the past few weeks). The cases eligible for this study will be identified by the veterinarians in VSS through their daily communication with practicing veterinarians and veterinary staff throughout the country. They will aim to obtain convenience samples from dogs with approximately equal representation of the northeast, southeast, midwest, northwest, and southwest regions of the U.S.

Expedited discovery of the etiology of this syndrome has the potential to have a significant impact on the health of dogs across the country.