Brucella canis is an emerging welfare and zoonotic disease concern in UK dogs, particularly in breeding kennels, where infection causes reproductive failure and requires aggressive management.
Brucella canis causes significant reproductive welfare suffering — bitches experience repeated abortions and stillbirths, and males develop testicular pain from epididymitis. The psychological distress of repeated pregnancy loss in breeding dogs represents genuine welfare harm. Management of confirmed positive breeding colony outbreaks involves the deeply difficult welfare decision of euthanasing infected dogs for whom reliable treatment is unavailable and whose continued presence poses zoonotic risk. Prevention through testing of imported dogs — particularly those from high-prevalence Eastern European countries — before breeding or contact with other dogs is the only reliable welfare protection. APHA guidelines are clear that all imported breeding dogs should be tested before use.