ARS | Publication request: Bordetella bronchiseptica Pneumonia in an Infant and Genetic Comparison of Clinical Isolates with Veterinary Kennel Cough Vaccines

Submitted to: Clinical Infectious Diseases
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: November 26, 2007
Publication Date: March 15, 2008
Citation: Rath, B.A., Register, K.B., Wall, J., Sokol, D.M., Van Dyke, R.B. 2008. Bordetella bronchiseptica Pneumonia in an Infant and Genetic Comparison of Clinical Isolates with Veterinary Kennel Cough Vaccines. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 46(6):905-908.

Interpretive Summary: Bordetella bronchiseptica is a respiratory disease pathogen closely related to the etiologic agent of whooping cough, Bordetella pertussis. B. pertussis infects only humans, but B. bronchiseptica naturally infects a variety of mammals, causing tracheobronchitis (“kennel cough”) in dogs and cats and atrophic rhinitis in swine. Reports of human disease exist, but mostly in immunocompromised hosts with exposure to infected farm or companion animals. Here we report a case of severe B. bronchiseptica pneumonia in an otherwise healthy infant residing in a household with a dog recently immunized with a live, attenuated B. bronchiseptica vaccine for kennel cough. The course of illness highlights the difficulty, but importance, of the differential diagnosis between B. pertussis and B. bronchiseptica infection. Genetic analysis of the human isolate and comparison with all commercially available, live kennel cough vaccine strains indicates the source of the affected infant’s infection was not the kennel cough vaccine recently administered to the family dog.

Technical Abstract: An infant with recurrent episodes of respiratory failure was diagnosed with pertussis based on immunofluorescence testing, but culture revealed macrolide-resistant Bordetella bronchiseptica. Genetic analysis demonstrated that the child was not infected with a kennel cough vaccine strain, although the family’s dog had been recently immunized. The infection cleared with imipenem.