H3N8 Likely Cause of Mystery Illness Killing Dogs In Florida
Recombinomics Commentary 23:55
February 8, 2008
"Several of these dogs were found dead in a large pool of blood, and when we did autopsies on them their lungs were full of blood, they had other organs involved," said Pizano.
The above comments describe dogs dying of a “mystery illness” in Miami Dade county in Florida. Although a bacterium, Streptococcus zooepidemicus, has been isolated, the deaths are almost certainly due to influenza, which is likely to be H3N8.
H3N8 has been causing problems at kennels for several years, with multiple outbreaks in Florida.
Identification of the serotype and release of sequence data would be useful.
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