Kennel cough, also (and more properly) referred to as canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC), has been in the news lately. This condition is a syndrome, not a specific disease, being potentially caused by a range of bacteria, viruses and Mycoplasma, including canine parainfluenza virus, canine influenza virus, canine respiratory herpesvirus, canine adenovirus, distemper virus, Bordetella bronchiseptica and Streptococcus zooepidemicus. Regardless of the cause, it's still a highly infectious disease characterized by a hacking cough. Serious illness, including deaths, can occur but is uncommon.
Here are a couple of kennel cough issues have hit the press lately:
- Mandatory kennel cough vaccination is now required for dogs competing in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. It's easy to see how this disease is a concern in these sled dogs, given the stress and rigours of competing and the mixing of many dogs from different areas. Kennel cough vaccination doesn't prevent all cases, since it only protects against Bordetella bronchiseptica +/- parainfluenza virus, but it's a useful infection control tool in high risk populations. The requirement has been implemented in part due to cases of kennel cough that were encountered in the 2011 race, along with the publicity that was generated (including the attention of PETA).
- In Rocklin, California, a dog park was closed for two days because of a kennel cough outbreak. It seems the closure was in response to the diagnosis of kennel cough in two dogs, and it's an unusual move given the apparently low number of cases. The issue isn't the park environment itself being biohazardous - rather, the park provides an opportunity for dog-dog transmission. Given that, it's a questionable control measures since it's unlikely that people will keep their dogs at home. Rather, they'll probably just go to another park, where the same risks will be present. It's a bit like the debate around school closures with pandemic influenza. On the surface, it seems like a good idea, since kids won't pass around flu at school. However, in reality, what happens is kids congregate at the mall and other places if schools are closed, so it just moves the site of transmission somewhere else and probably doesn't have any net benefit. Here, a better response would probably be an educational campaign to get people to keep sick dogs at home, have people keep their dog away from other dogs at the park and encourage vaccination of high risk dogs (which would include those that go to a park and interact with other dogs).
- A kennel cough outbreak was reported in Bozeman, Montana, with veterinarians asking owners to be on the lookout for disease. Local veterinarians reported a spike in the number of cases, with one clinic reporting around 20 cases in the past month, which is a pretty remarkable number for your average vet clinic.
- And locally... nothing specific, but I keep getting reports of clusters of respiratory disease in dogs. We often don't get a chance to investigate small clusters to figure out the cause, since information often gets to me after the fact, but it's a recurrent problem in Ontario. Most of the reports are rather poorly defined clusters of sick dogs, with occasional severe outbreaks involving fatalities (including one I'm dealing with at the moment).