Acta Vet. Brno 2010, 79: 437-442
Isolation and Characterization of Brachyspira spp. from Dogs in the Czech Republic
The objectives of this study were to establish the prevalence of intestinal Spirochetes of the genus Brachyspira in Czech dogs and to determine the susceptibility of obtained B. pilosicoli isolates to selected antibacterial substances. Spirochetes were diagnosed microscopically in 23 out of 1139 samples of dogs’ excrements, primarily intended for a parasitological testing. The cultivation of positive samples provided 10 brachyspira isolates, which were, on the basis of their biochemical activity and the results of the species-specific PCR, identified as B. pilosicoli (9 isolates) and B. hyodysenteriae (1 isolate). These dogs came from households. All the 7 tested isolates B. pilosicoli were sensitive to metronidazole and doxycycline, uniformly resistant to erythromycin, partly sensitive to cefazoline, lincomicine and ampicilline except for one isolate of B. pilosicoli, which was resistant to ampicilline. The second part of study was focused on dogs with diarrhoea that came from animal shelters, where a high prevalence of 58% (10/17) of B. pilosicoli was found.
