Abstract
Canine brucellosis due to Brucella canis is a neglected and underdiagnosed disease in many regions of the world. Currently, this disease is a main cause of abortions or infertility in dogs, or others symptoms like discospondilitys or subclinical forms. For the last two years, canine brucellosis reappeared in Europe and could become endemic. At least 8 cases have been confirmed in kennels from France, from dogsimported from Eastern Europe (Russia, Belarus and Romania) and the USA. Other outbreaks have been reported in United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands or as sporadic cases in other countries. Serological, bacteriological and molecular biology approaches can be used and combined to identify or follow the infection. However, it is not possible to exclude the infection in case of negative results. The number of pets adopted in UK have largely increased during the COVID19 pandemic, especially new dogs breeds. This can be correlated with the emergence of canine brucellosis in European countries, as infected dogs have been mainly imported from foreign countries. Serological analyses are useful to identify and to follow the infection, due to the rough LPS avoiding the cross reaction with other smooth Brucella species. Bacteriological and molecular analyses have been also performed, as the isolation of strains allow genotyping and phylogenetic analyses. These analyses are important to track the source of infection and try to identify specific routes of transmission. This study presents an overview of canine brucellosis in France, with the combination of different approaches, allowing to hypothesize about introduction or emergence of the disease in the country.
