Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Fatal tick-borne encephalitis infection in Dalmatian puppies
By Dawson, Kara L D et al.·Published in The veterinary quarterly·2024·Vetsuisse Faculty·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Fatal tick-borne encephalitis virus infection in Dalmatian puppy-dogs after putative vector independent transmission.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A three-week-old Dalmatian puppy was brought in with severe neurological symptoms and sadly passed away due to tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). Two of its littermates showed similar signs and were also found to have TBEV. The researchers believe that the puppies may have contracted the virus in the womb rather than from ticks, which is unusual for this disease. This case highlights the importance of considering TBEV in young dogs with neurological issues. Unfortunately, there was no effective treatment for these puppies, and they did not survive.
People also search for: Dalmatian puppy neurological symptoms · tick-borne encephalitis in dogs · puppy brain infection treatment
Abstract
In a retrospective metatranscriptomics study, we identified tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) to be the causative agent for a fatal non-suppurative meningoencephalitis in a three-week-old Dalmatian puppy in Switzerland. Further investigations showed that the two other littermates with similar signs and pathological lesions were also positive for TBEV. By using an unbiased approach of combining high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and bioinformatics we were able to solve the etiology and discover an unusual case of TBEV in three young puppies. Based on our findings, we suggest that a vector-independent transmission of TBEV occurred and that most likely an intrauterine infection led to the severe and fulminant disease of the entire litter. We were able to demonstrate the presence of TBEV RNA byhybridization (ISH) in the brain of all three puppies. Furthermore, we were able to detect TBEV by RT-qPCR in total RNA extracted from formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded (FFPE) blocks containing multiple peripheral organs. Overall, our findings shed light on alternative vector-independent transmission routes of TBEV infections in dogs and encourage veterinary practitioners to consider TBEV as an important differential diagnosis in neurological cases in dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38596900/