Brucella canis

Brucella canis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Bacteria
Phylum:	Proteobacteria
Class:	Alphaproteobacteria
Order:	Rhizobiales
Family:	Brucellaceae
Genus:	Brucella
Species:	B. canis
Binomial name
Brucella canis Carmichael & Bruner, 1968

Brucella canis is a Gram-negative proteobacterium in the family Brucellaceae that causes brucellosis in dogs and other canids. B. canis is rod-shaped or a coccus, and is oxidase, catalase, and urease positive. The species was firstly described in United States in 1966 where mass abortions of beagles were documented. The disease is characterized by epididymitis and orchitis in male dogs, endometritis, placentitis, and abortions in females, and often presents as infertility in both sexes. Other symptoms such as inflammation in the eyes and axial and appendicular skeleton; lymphadenopathy and splenomegaly, are less common. Humans can be also infected, but occurrences are rare.

B. canis is a zoonotic organism. Signs of this disease are different in both genders of dogs; females that have B. canis infections face an abortion of their developed fetuses. Males face the chance of infertility, because they develop an antibody against the sperm. This may be followed by inflammation of the testes which generally settles down a while after. Symptoms do not only include testicular inflammation, infertility in males, and abortion in females. Another symptom is the infection of the spinal plates or vertebrae, which is called diskospondylitis.

Treatment for B. canis is very difficult to find and often very expensive. The combination of minocycline and streptomycin is thought to be useful, but it is often unaffordable. Tetracycline can be a less expensive substitute for minocycline, but it also lowers the effect of the treatment.

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