An investigation of Kennel cough in Sweden focusing on canine calicivirus

Sammanfattning: Kennel cough, which is also known as the Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease (CIRD) is a disease complex caused by several different pathogens including both viruses and bacteria. According to previous research, canine adenovirus, canine parainfluenza virus and Bordetella bronchiseptica are common causes of kennel cough. Recently, other pathogens found to cause or be associated with kennel cough are canine respiratory coronavirus and Mycoplasma species. Research at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences is ongoing to explore novel pathogens that may play a role in kennel cough, and one such candidate path-ogen is canine calicivirus. Before starting this project, an initial metagenomics study was performed on samples from 14 dogs of which 12 were positive for CIRD and 2 from healthy individuals. According to the metagenomic study 2 out of the 12 dogs with CIRD were found positive for canine calicivirus, one of which was only positive for canine calicivirus and no other pathogens. So, the question arises if canine calici-virus has any role in CIRD? To answer this question 75 samples from dogs with (n=59) and without (n=16) clinical signs of kennel cough were screened for canine calicivirus using a specific calicivirus RT-PCR. The result shows (7 out of 59) (11.86%) dogs with clinical signs of kennel cough were tested positive for canine calicivirus, and no dogs (0 out of 16) tested positive for canine calicivirus from the healthy control group. The 07 dogs that were tested positive for canine calicivirus in the present study except for one dog displayed mild signs. Overall, our results indicate that there could be an association between canine calicivirus and kennel cough, something that has previously not been described. To date, this is also to our knowledge the first descrip-tion of canine calicivirus in dogs in Sweden.