A 2021 outbreak of leptospirosis that sickened more than 200 dogs in Los Angeles County reveals critical gaps in vaccination practices and raises broader concerns about the spread of the disease between animals and people, according to new research led by the University of California, Davis. 

Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease that can cause severe illness in dogs, including acute kidney injury. In severe cases, dogs can die. Humans can also contract the disease through contact with contaminated animal urine (especially from rodents or livestock) or contaminated water. Human cases often result in flu-like symptoms that can be treated with antibiotics.

In the new study, scientists traced the outbreak to dog daycare environments where close contact among animals could have accelerated dog-to-dog transmission, an atypical occurrence. 

“We know that the boarding itself was a risk factor,” said lead author Jane Sykes, professor of small animal internal medicine at the UC Davis Weill School of Veterinary Medicine. “It might have been rodent problems in those facilities, or it might have just been really overcrowded facilities with lots of dogs in close contact with one another.”

The study was published in Journal of Clinical Microbiology, an American Society for Microbiology journal.

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