Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dogs can catch H5N1 bird flu and show fever and cough
By Chen, Ying et al.·Published in Virology·2010·Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, China·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Dogs are highly susceptible to H5N1 avian influenza virus.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 12 beagles was infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus to see how it affected them. The dogs showed symptoms like loss of appetite, fever, eye irritation, difficulty breathing, and coughing. Sadly, one dog died four days after infection, and the virus was found in all the dogs that were euthanized shortly after. This study highlights that dogs can get sick from this virus and may play a role in spreading it to humans.
People also search for: dog coughing and fever · H5N1 avian influenza in dogs · dog breathing problems after exposure to birds
Abstract
Replication of avian influenza viruses (AIVs) in dogs may facilitate their adaptation in humans; however, the data to date on H5N1 influenza virus infection in dogs are conflicting. To elucidate the susceptibility of dogs to this pathogen, we infected two groups of 6 beagles with 10(6) 50% egg-infectious dose of H5N1 AIV A/bar-headed goose/Qinghai/3/05 (BHG/QH/3/05) intranasally (i.n.) and intratracheally (i.t.), respectively. The dogs showed disease symptoms, including anorexia, fever, conjunctivitis, labored breathing and cough, and one i.t. inoculated animal died on day 4 post-infection. Virus shedding was detected from all 6 animals inoculated i.n. and one inoculated i.t. Virus replication was detected in all animals that were euthanized on day 3 or day 5 post-infection and in the animal that died on day 4 post-infection. Our results demonstrate that dogs are highly susceptible to H5N1 AIV and may serve as an intermediate host to transfer this virus to humans.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20580396/