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Recently reported cases of often deadly bacterial infection, leptospirosis in dogs in Sydney, have raised the problem of animal diseases that also affect humans.
This zoonotic disease is transmitted by rats and other rodents. However, this latter group in the dog has not been accompanied by human cases in the Sydney area until now; Dog cases are not always accompanied by human cases nearby.
So, what is leptospirosis? And what can we do to protect ourselves and our pets from this life-threatening disease?
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To date, at least six cases of canine leptospirosis have been confirmed in west central and Sydney in 2019, including three in May and June. Five of the six dogs are dead.
So far, these cases have been confined to part of Sydney but we do not know the source of the infection. Some people have speculated that recent construction work could have dispersed rats and spread contaminated water during floods.
How is it transmitted?
Leptospirosis is caused by Leptospira bacteria that rodents and other animals can transmit to animals and humans.
Dogs can be infected by direct contact (for example, by a rat bite or by eating rats) or by indirect contact (for example, drinking water contaminated with urine).
Clinical signs may not appear in dogs for about seven days. The first signs may be vague – fever, lethargy, anorexia (loss of appetite), vomiting and diarrhea.
Dogs can also get rid of bacteria in their urine without being clinically ill ("silent mutants"). This and the contact with sick dogs represent a potential risk for other dogs and people coming into contact with their urine.
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Severely affected dogs may develop acute renal failure, liver damage and jaundice (yellowing of the skin), uveitis (inflammation of the eyes), bleeding and, in severe cases, bleeding into the lungs causing difficulty respiratory. These clinical signs result from an injury to the blood vessels (vasculitis) and the resulting damage to the blood supply to the organs.
Veterinarians can confirm the diagnosis after taking blood and urine samples. In suspected cases, antibiotic treatment should begin quickly, even before the disease is confirmed by laboratory tests, to minimize organ damage. Critically ill dogs will require intensive care, ideally in an intensive care unit.
How do humans catch it?
In addition to being exposed to bacteria present in the urine of their infected animals, rodents can also infect them. This can be directly (from a rat bite) or if a wound is exposed to soil or water contaminated with rat urine. The consumption of contaminated food or the consumption of contaminated water can also be responsible for the transmission of the bacteria.
Humans may not have symptoms for two to twenty-five days. But in 90% of human cases, it is a mild influenza-like flu.
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More rarely, a more serious illness may develop, which may resemble what we see in dogs, and is known as Weil's disease.
According to NSW Health, these more serious symptoms include kidney failure, jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes, indicating liver disease), and hemorrhage of the skin and mucous membranes. Meningitis (inflammation of the lining of the brain) and bleeding in the lungs can also occur. Most people who develop a serious illness must go to the hospital and severe leptospirosis can sometimes be fatal.
Leptospirosis is a notifiable disease in humans, which means that laboratories must report cases of leptospirosis to the local public health unit. This year, 51 cases have been reported in Australia, but none has been badociated with the current outbreak of dogs.
How can we prevent it?
We can prevent leptospirosis by limiting contact between us and our pets to sources of infection and vaccinating our dogs.
Make sure that dogs do not swim and do not drink in stagnant waters such as ponds, lakes or puddles.
Wash your hands after contact with stagnant water, soil, rodent urine, dogs, or cats or simply after contact with pets, especially before eating.
Also, avoid contact with rodents and be sure to dispose of garbage to reduce the risk of attracting rats.
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Until now, leptospirosis was rarely reported in Sydney. Thus, dogs are not systematically vaccinated. But we are currently recommending vaccination for all dogs in the center-west and in the city.
The vaccine available in Australia protects against a serovar (type of bacteria), and we do not know if it is the only type causing recent problems. Vaccines against several serovars are available abroad.
To learn more about the current cluster, we launched a research project. This will investigate the geographic distribution of the recent outbreak and the serovars of the bacteria involved. We also work with veterinarians in Sydney who, with the pet owners' permission, collect blood and urine samples from dogs prior to their leptospirosis vaccination.
I therefore hope that we can better understand this latter group and how we can protect animal health and, ultimately, human health in the future.
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