More LA County Dogs Are Getting Sick With A Respiratory Illness. Researchers Might Know Why

The number of dogs in L.A. County that have been infected with a potentially fatal, sudden respiratory illness have more than tripled in the last few weeks.

There’s been at least 32 reported cases as of Wednesday, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health. That’s up from 10 cases as of Nov. 22.

Officials still don't know exactly what's causing the dogs to get sick with symptoms like coughing, sneezing, and a lack of energy.

However, researchers from the University of New Hampshire’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and the Hubbard Center for Genome Studies may have just had a major breakthrough.

The discovery

David Needle is a pathology section chief at the lab and a clinical associate professor at UNH. Needle and his team have been following this since last summer when they started to hear rumblings in the veterinary community about respiratory symptoms in dogs that weren't responsive to standard treatments and tests.

After collecting samples from dozens of sick dogs in several states, Needle told LAist they used random genetic sequencing to look for fungus, pathogens, and viruses. That initial study didn’t point to a culprit, at least until graduate student Lawrence Gordon dug a little deeper.

“He found, in a subset of the animals, a small amount of genetic material belonging to a previously uncharacterized bacterium,” Needle said.

They don’t know for sure if what they found is a pathogen, Needle noted, but that bacterium could be what’s causing the dogs to get sick.

What's next

Researchers need to do more testing to confirm this discovery, and Needle said they just got more samples from Colorado and Maryland on Tuesday. They’ve also checked the lab’s archive of samples, and three other studies on canine respiratory microbes, but they didn’t find anything notable in those.

“The evidence indicates at this point, the likelihood is we've identified something that appears to be new to the canine respiratory disease complex group,” Needle said.

If it turns out to be the culprit, this discovery could help guide treatment in L.A., and across the country.

At the very least, it can add to our understanding of the respiratory disease complex, which pops up seasonally, Needle noted.

“Whether it’s a novel pathogen, or it’s just something novel, it’s really rewarding,” he said.

Learn more about what to do if your dog starts showing symptoms.