First Isolation and Multilocus Sequence Typing of Brucella canis from a Subclinically Infected Pet Dog in China

Canine brucellosis, a worldwide zoonotic disease, is mainly caused by Brucella canis. In the present study, we isolated a Brucella strain (CD3) from a subclinically infected pet dog in Sichuan Province, Southwestern China. Classical biotyping methods and molecular biological tests (BCSP31 and BcSS PCR) proved that the strain belonged to B. canis. Furthermore, B. canis CD3 and another two B. canis strains (WJ5 and YA4), which were all isolated from pet dogs in Sichuan, were genotyped using multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Our results showed that the three B. canis strains were identified as the same sequence type (ST21). The present study is the first to report B. canis strain from a subclinically infected pet dog in China, indicating a potential threat to public health posed by subclinical infections in pet dogs. We suggest that screening for B. canis should be incorporated into routine medical examination of pet dogs and other companion animals in areas with a history of animal or human brucellosis.

How Can Dogs and Cats Help to Cure Human Cancers?

Like their owners, dogs and cats can be affected by several types of cancer, and some types are very similar to those seen in people. Unfortunately, there is still no cure for several types of cancer. How can humans’ best friends help? If a new therapy to fight cancer works well in pets, it is likely to also be effective in people with the same type of cancer. Scientists, medical doctors, and animal doctors are working together to develop new therapies that destroy cancer cells and save patients. Since the characteristics of certain types of cancer are very similar between humans and pets, new medicines that work in pet dogs or cats may also benefit human patients. Studying these “human-like” cancers in pets may speed up the development of effective anti-cancer drugs and will help to cure not only more dogs and cats, but also people with cancer.

Secure base effect in former shelter dogs and other family dogs: Strangers do not provide security in a problem-solving task

Domestic dogs display behavioural patterns towards their owners that fulfil the four criteria of attachment. As such, they use their owners as a secure base, exploring the environment and manipulating objects more when accompanied by their owners than when alone. Although there are some indications that owners serve as a better secure base than other human beings, the evidence regarding a strong owner-stranger differentiation in a manipulative context is not straightforward. In the present study, we conducted two experiments in which pet dogs were tested in an object-manipulation task in the presence of the owner and of a stranger, varying how the human partner would behave (i.e. remaining silent or encouraging the dog, Experiment 1), and when alone (Experiment 2). Further, to gain a better insight into the mechanisms behind a potential owner-stranger differentiation, we investigated the effect of dogs’ previous life history (i.e. having lived in a shelter or having lived in the same household since puppyhood). Overall, we found that strangers do not provide a secure base effect and that former shelter dogs show a stronger owner-stranger differentiation than other family dogs. As former shelter dogs show more behavioural signs correlated with anxiety towards the novel environment and the stranger, we concluded that having been re-homed does not necessarily affect the likelihood of forming a secure bond with the new owner but might have an impact on how dogs interact with novel stimuli, including unfamiliar humans. These results confirm the owner’s unique role in providing security to their dogs and have practical implications for the bond formation in pet dogs with a past in a shelter.

Overimitation in Dogs: Is there a Link to the Quality of the Relationship with the Caregiver?

Overimitation, the copying of causally irrelevant or non-functional actions, is well-known from humans but completely absent in other primates. Recent studies from our lab have provided evidence for overimitation in canines. Previously, we found that half of tested pet dogs copied their human caregiver's irrelevant action, while only few did so when the action was demonstrated by an unfamiliar experimenter. Therefore, we hypothesized that dogs show overimitation as a result of socio-motivational grounds. To test this more specifically, here we investigated how the relationship with the caregiver influenced the eagerness to overimitate. Given the high variability in the tendency to overimitate their caregiver, we hypothesized that not only familiarity, but also relationship quality influences whether dogs faithfully copy their caregiver. For this purpose, we measured on the one hand the overimitation tendency (with the same test as in the two studies before) and on the other hand the relationship quality between the dogs and their caregivers. Although not significant, results revealed that dogs who overimitated seemed to show more referential and affiliative behaviours towards the owner (like gazing, synchronization and greeting) than dogs who showed less or no copying of the irrelevant action. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed.

Thalamic deep brain stimulation modulates cycles of seizure risk in epilepsy

Chronic brain recordings suggest that seizure risk is not uniform, but rather varies systematically relative to daily (circadian) and multiday (multidien) cycles. Here, one human and seven dogs with naturally occurring epilepsy had continuous intracranial EEG (median 298 days) using novel implantable sensing and stimulation devices. Two pet dogs and the human subject received concurrent thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) over multiple months. All subjects had circadian and multiday cycles in the rate of interictal epileptiform spikes (IES). There was seizure phase locking to circadian and multiday IES cycles in five and seven out of eight subjects, respectively. Thalamic DBS modified circadian (all 3 subjects) and multiday (analysis limited to the human participant) IES cycles. DBS modified seizure clustering and circadian phase locking in the human subject. Multiscale cycles in brain excitability and seizure risk are features of human and canine epilepsy and are modifiable by thalamic DBS.

Long-term assessment of risk factors for canine tumors registered in Xi’an, China

Tumors are one of the leading causes to death in pet dogs among diseases. The tumor incidence of pet dogs has been increasing, raising widespread concern.The tumor incidence of pet dogs has been increasing, raising widespread concern. In this study, retrospective analysis was performed with 246 tumor cases registered in Xi’an Animal Hospital, Northwest A&F University from 2009 to 2018. Correlations of sex, age and breed with tumor incidences were evaluated. The results showed that reproductive system tumors occupied the highest proportion (39.84%), followed by cutaneous tumors (28.05%), digestive tumors (18.70%) and ocular tumor (4.47%). Among the reproductive system tumors, breast tumors are the most common tumor in female pet dogs, especially for Pekingese (11.43%). Female dogs with high susceptibility to breast tumors were at the ages of 6–18 years old. As far as cutaneous tumors were concerned, the male pet dogs at all ages, particularly Golden Retrievers (17.39%), showed a high incidence. By contrast, male Samoyed aged from 4 to 13 years had the highest incidence (15.22%) of digestive tumors. In addition, pet dogs with ocular tumors mainly happened at the ages of 0–1 years and 6–13 years. Collectively, our findings are significant to develop effective measures of medical surveillance for pet dogs’ health and will provide insights for comparative oncology.

Survey of Tick Infestations on Pet Dogs in Jalingo Local Government Area, Taraba State

The study investigated the prevalence of tick infestation among pet dogs in Jalingo Metropolis, Taraba State. The study area was fragmented into five study sites namely Kona, Magami Mayo-gwoi, Mile Six and Nukkai areas. Thirty samples were collected from each study sites using random sampling method. The prevalence of ticks infestation on dogs recorded was 80%. Prevalence was significantly different between the sites (χ2 = 13.333, p =0.0098). Amongst the tick genera observed, Ammblyomma had the highest prevalence, 44 (29.3%) followed closely by Ixodes spp., 41 (27.3%), and the least was Dermacentor, 33 (22.0%). Dogs of 108 (72.0%) of the respondent were vaccinated. Dogs of 82 (54.7%) of the respondents received treatment for diseases. Only 71 (47.3%) respondents used medicated soap, acaricide or chemicals to control dog ectoparasites. Attitudes of dog owners contributes directly or indirectly to tick infestation of dogs in Jalingo metropolis.