Prevalence of Enteropathogens in Dogs Attending 3 Regional Dog Parks in Northern California

Hascall, K.L.; Kass, P.H.; Saksen, J.; Ahlmann, A.; Scorza, A.V.; Lappin, M.R.; Marks, S.L.

Eight of 300 dogs (2.7%) tested positive for either Campylobacter jejuni or C. coli via fecal PCR testing. Four dogs were positive for C. jejuni, 3 dogs were positive for C. coli, and 1 dog was positive for both C. jejuni and C. coli. Four of these 8 dogs (50%) were co-infected with 1 to 4 of the following enteropathogens: C. difficile, C. perfringens, coronavirus, circovirus, and Cryptosporidium spp; however, only 1 of the 8 dogs infected with Campylobacter spp. had diarrhea on the day of sample collection. None of the 8 dogs were fed a raw diet. Ten dogs were positive for C. difficile TcdA and TcdB genes via PCR. One of the 10 dogs was positive for C. difficile TcdA gene alone, 1 dog was positive for TcdB gene alone, and 8 dogs (2.7%) were positive for both TcdA and TcdB genes. Detection of C. difficile TcdA and TcdB genes was not associated with fecal score. Clostridium perfringens alpha toxin gene or cpe was detected in 104 of 300 dogs (35%). Thirty-three of the 104 dogs (32%) had diarrhea on the day of fecal collection, and 12 of these 33 dogs were co-infected with additional enteropathogen(s) ( Table S2) . Clostridium perfringens alpha toxin gene was detected above a threshold of 300,000 gene copies/gram via fecal PCR in 25 of the 300 dogs (8.3%), of which 12 dogs (48%) had diarrhea. Clostridium perfringens alpha toxin gene was negative or was detected below threshold in 239 dogs, of which 61 dogs had diarrhea (26%). This difference was significant (P = .032). Clostridium perfringens cpe was detected above threshold in 8 of 264 dogs (3.0%), of which 5 dogs (63%) had diarrhea. Of the 256 dogs in which C. perfringens cpe was negative or was detected below threshold, 68 dogs (27%) had diarrhea. These differences were significant (P = .039). There was a weak correlation found between the quantity of C. perfringens alpha toxin gene and fecal score (q S = 0.13, P = .037) and quantity of cpe and fecal score (q S = 0.12, P = .057). Three of 300 dogs (1%) tested positive on PCR for Salmonella. None of these 3 dogs had diarrhea on the day of fecal collection, and none were fed a raw diet. One of the dogs infected with Salmonella was co-infected with Giardia spp. and C. perfringens.