Pneumonic Plague in a Dog and Widespread Potential Human Exposure in a Veterinary Hospital, United States

Abstract

In December 2017, a dog that had pneumonic plague was brought to a veterinary teaching hospital in northern Colorado, USA. Several factors, including signalment, season, imaging, and laboratory findings, contributed to delayed diagnosis and resulted in potential exposure of >116 persons and 46 concurrently hospitalized animals to Yersinia pestis.

Keywords

• plague
• pneumonic plague
• dog
• canine
• Yersinia pestis
• bacteria