Bacterial Infections of the Upper Respiratory Tract of Different Breeds of Dog in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

Dogs are domestic animals as well as human pets with potential zoonotic respiratory infections. Nasopharyngeal samples were collected from a total of fifty-five (55) dogs at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH), Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Nigeria. Ten (10) breeds were examined for probable bacteria responsible for upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) and antibiotic resistance among the isolates. The isolates per breed with age as a factor, were microbiological screened, while antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) was performed by Kirby-Bauer’s disc diffusion method with their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The URTI was highest (49.0%) for dogs younger than 12 months, while the least percentage of 5.5% was recorded for dogs between ages 6 and 10 years. The decreasing order of URTI rate based on breed was; Alsatian (43.6%)>Boerboel (20.0%)>Italian mastiff>Terrier cross (1.8%). The frequency of occurrence of ten identified bacterial species were Escherichia coli (83.1%), Citrobacter freundii (73.4%), Staphylococcus aureus (67.5%), Klebsiella oxytoca (65.2%), Bacillus subtilis (57.6%), Staphylococcus saprophyticus (40%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (38.2%), Streptococcus spp. (18.2%), Proteus mirabilis (14.5%) and Haemophilus spp. (5.8%). All the isolates expressed significant differences (P