Strain Issues Warning About Guillan-Barre Type Syndrome in Animals

By Dr. Mike Strain, D.V.M, Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture & Forestry

In the January 2018 Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, a group of Australian veterinarians and scientists led by Dr.L. Martinez-Anton published a paper titled “Investigation of The Roleof Campylobacter Infection in Suspected Acute Polyradiculoneuritis(APN) in Dogs.”

Their findings, combined with other works includingrecent articles from the CDC, clearly indicate a causative relationshipbetween Campylobacter jejuni (bacteria) and Acute polyradiculoneuritiswhich has been proposed as a canine model for human Guillain-Barre’syndrome (GBS).

This designation is based on clinical, physiological and pathological similarities between the two diseases.In dogs and man, Campylobacter jejuni is now considered one of themajor causative factors of both APN and GBS respectively. In this article, 96 percent of the cases of APN in dogs reported the consumption of raw chicken. Additionally, 48 percent of the dogs with clinical APN testedpositive for Campylobacter infection.

Most Campylobacter cases in humans are considered to be associatedwith the consumption of raw or undercooked poultry as chickens are anatural reservoir of the bacteria. Consumption of contaminated waterand unpasteurized milk are also considered to play important roles.

In a recent CDC article, 12 confirmed and five suspected cases ofCampylobacter jejuni infections in humans were reported asoriginating from a single herdshare farm. Additionally, the outbreakstrain was resistant to tetracycline, naladixic acid, andciprofloxacillin which are the first line of defense drugs for theseinfections.

Upon review of the literature, there appears tobe a significant increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria associatedwith raw milk. Based on the increase in antibiotic resistance and the prevalence of Campylobacter species in raw poultry and raw milk, neither of these products should be fed to family pets.

There is too great a risk of infection with resistant and non-resistant strains which are proven to be associated with the development of Acute Polyradiculoneuritis which could also potentially infect humans and result in Guillain-Barre’ syndrome.