Canine Respiratory Infections in Animal Shelters

Contagious respiratory infections are the most common cause of illness in dogs in shelters. These infections represent a significant and frequent drain on shelter resources, including treatment costs, staff time, and staff morale. Holding dogs for treatment and recovery adds to the number of animal care days until adoption, which in turn impacts the holding capacity for the shelter and contributes to potential for crowding. Many shelters do not have adequate isolation areas to house dogs with contagious respiratory infections, so they are frequently kept in the general population, assuring the transmission and perpetuation of the pathogen so that it becomes an accepted “endemic” problem. In other words, respiratory infections are mostly accepted as a “fact of life” in shelters. However, some respiratory pathogens such canine distemper virus and canine influenza virus, have resulted in temporary closure of numerous shelters and depopulation due to severity of disease or numbers of affected dogs. These situations not only impact animal health and welfare, but also attract unfavorable scrutiny by the media and community.