TY - JOUR AU - van Dijk, Marloes A.M. AU - Engelsma, Marc AU - Visser, Vanessa X.N. AU - Keur, Ingrid AU - Holtslag, Marjolijn AU - Willems, Nicole AU - Meij, Björn AU - Willemsen, Peter T.J. AU - Wagenaar, Jaap AU - Roest, Hendrik I.J. AU - Broens, Els T1 - Transboundary Spread of Brucella canis through Import of Infected Dogs, the Netherlands, November 2016–December 2018 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2021 VL - 27 IS - 7 SP - 1783 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Brucella canis had not been isolated in the Netherlands until November 2016, when it was isolated from a dog imported from Romania. Including this case, 16 suspected cases were notified to the authorities during the following 25 months. Of these 16 dogs, 10 were seropositive; tracking investigations found another 8 seropositive littermates. All seropositive animals were rescue dogs imported from Eastern Europe. B. canis was cultured from urine, blood, and other specimens collected from the dogs. Genotyping of isolates revealed clustering by litter and country. Isolating B. canis in urine indicates that shedding should be considered when assessing the risk for zoonotic transmission. This case series proves introduction of B. canis into a country to which it is not endemic through import of infected dogs from B. canis–endemic areas, posing a threat to the naive autochthonous dog population and humans. KW - Canine brucellosis KW - Brucella canis KW - zoonoses KW - bacteria KW - the Netherlands DO - 10.3201/eid2707.201238 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/7/20-1238_article ER - End of Reference