what is the poll on the spread of this lately?
anyone on here dealt with it or know someone that has delt with it in the past few years?

brucellosis is rare in US livestock due to heavy eradication methods, just curious about canines?

Call Department of Agriculture of your state. They'll give you the numbers.

dont think she was looking for exact numbers per state. more from breeders........I have not had an issue in 20 years nor heard of any of my breeders friends with issues.

We hear of it sporadically in rescues and barren mill dogs. It is still in wild pigs. It is in the bison coming out of Yellowstone, which is why they test them when they go off the parklands and why they slaughter the ones that test positive. (Hmm, wonder where all the new bison dog food is coming from?!?!) It is in Greece and other Mediterranean countries, and it is hard to keep out of goat and sheep populations. It is contagious to people, even children, and can cause severe illness. The dairy farmers on here will probably tell us that Bang's disease is relatively rare in cattle these days. As it is spread in urine, not just placentae, etc., and since we show at fairgrounds, I consider it something to test for. I strongly prefer to have an outside stud dog or new dog tested for it if more than a puppy! With the airlifts of dogs from places that have it in the wild animals, such as Gulf Coast and California, I sure don't see a geographic barrier to infection. However, it certainly is less common than it once was. I just see new opportunities to spread as animals are flown to shows and rescues. It is enough of a threat that repro vets want dogs collected for freezing semen to have been tested negative for it. I sure don't want my own children to get it!

Great input Charlotte.

There was a nasty case of it in W. Wa ~3 yrs ago. Yes, it was a puppy mill, but it could have been (and may have been) quite far reaching. One also in MI at within the year. When I had a bitch w/ a singleton lose it on her due date, the attending vet at the emergency clinic insisted I test for brucella (it was a chilled breeding, and the bitch had never been naturally bred so not tested). I agreed, but of course it came back negative. Nothing to mess with.

Whenever I read questions like this, I remember a response I got from someone in a different breed when I overheard them talking about OFA exams. It went something like this: "No, dysplasia isn't really a problem in our breed but we are testing for it because we don't WANT it to become one". I thought at the time, how novel!

Interestingly enough ... I just received my newletter from the Purina Pro Club ... What was their lead article about ... brucellosis ... excellent article. They discussed the rise in the number of cases along with how it is spread and testing for it.

Ann, I haven't read the pro club newsletter. For some reason I haven't received it but if you have more questions or would like some good info on how easily it can be spread in urine, e mail me privately and I will be glad to try to answer your questions. Different animals get their own species specific brucellosis. There are cases of cross contamination but they are not the norm other the problems in Yellowstone etc. and it is still staying within ruminants. We seem to be the only ones who can get it from anybody, however human cases of Brucella canis are rare. To my knowledge, no state agency keeps yearly stats on B. canis cases nor requires them to be reported. Debbie Darche DVM leedspet@windstream.net

Here's a good article~ I think we breeders need to take heed and make sure brucellosis testing becomes routine and is part of our annual checkups and even bi-annually if you have dogs on the show circuit/field, etc.

It's out there. It is really scary considering how easily it really can be transmitted. Being in the right place at the wrong time and you're in trouble....

I received my purina newsletter today. About a week ago, I received my OSU newsletter and they also had a warning article in there. They are working along w/ Iowa State in getting a PCR test for brucella canis.

http://www.ivis.org/advances/Disease_Factsheets/brucellosis_canis.pdf

Yes, Iowa and Oklahoma appear to take brucellosis seriously, and Iowa states that the livestock versions are considered by some scientists to be the same as the dog one, that the various kinds are really all one species, Brucella melitensis, which makes the threat more serious than some dog breeders and their vets seem to think. Of my three vets, two consider it a threat, including the repro one, and one does not.

http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/Factsheets/pdfs/brucellosis_canis.pdf

Oklahoma epidemiology has shown 68% of people have had antibodies to brucella, which is amazing to me in the east.

Why skip this test when it can ruin a breeding program and your own health way faster than bad hips in one dog? For the profit minded, you get up to 75% fewer puppies in infected kennels, with entire litters lost, and stud dogs with bad backs, bad hearts, etc.

when using an outside stud dog , how old would you accept the test to be?

My repro takes it very seriously. Says it's bigger in Oklahoma than many realize down the KS/MO line. Puppy mills transferring puppies back n forth, etc. To think of all the puppy mill puppies shipped out of this region to other states to pet shops,etc.

Yeah, amazing indeed on the 68%..

To answer ANN: I would think w/in the year is fine. That is what I used to do. But because like I stated, it is easier transmitted than we once thought, I now do my boy 2x a year because he was showing last year and is getting ready to go to work on his SH. He's around a lot of different dogs/grounds, etc. Girls get tested prior to being bred. Any outside girl coming in , I require a negative B. canis at the onset of her cycle..no sooner.


~S