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Management of Infectious Disease in Kennels and Multicat Environments:
Creating a Culture of Compliance

Frank Bossong, DVM

College of Veterinary Medicine, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA, USA

Dog kennels and multiple‐cat environments exist in States and the Animal Welfare Act have set minimum
various types of venues. Whether a boarding facility, a standards to follow. Dogs in group housing should have a
cattery, dog breeding kennel, animal control shelter or minimum of 4 ×4 feet of floor space per individual.
humane society, challenges arise in minimizing and Co‐housed cats should have at least 10.8 square feet per
managing infectious disease in environments where cat and an additional 2.5 square feet for cats that are
multiple individuals co‐habit in confined areas. Minimi­ co‐housed together. Ventilation is also important, with
zing the risks, understanding modes of transmission, an optimum exchange rate of air inside a building
promoting prevention, taking a structured approach to replaced with fresh outside air 8–15 times per hour. Safe
disinfection, and, most importantly, creating a culture of outside housing is ideal in terms of air circulation and
compliance for established protocols can be helpful in has the added benefit of sunlight and ultraviolet light, as
the prevention and control of infectious disease in these they reduce the number of microorganisms and can
settings. Not only will the health of the canine and feline inactivate viruses, bacteria, fungi, and mycoplasma. The
residents be promoted, but such an approach protects the materials in the facility need to be nonporous to allow for
human caretaker from zoonotic disease transmission. proper cleaning and disinfection of surfaces.

Modes of Transmission
Risks

Understanding of the modes of transmission is helpful in
Some of the major risks for the spread of infectious dis­ determining the preventive measures that need to be
ease include poor facility design, overcrowding, intro­ taken. Aerosol transmission is affected by ventilation
duction of new individuals with undetermined health and distance between individuals. Oral ingestion of con­
status, untrained/noncompliant staff, and lack of policy, taminated food/water and oral contact with inanimate
procedures, and/or biologic risk management (BRM) objects (fomites) such as toys, cages, bedding, etc. are
protocols for managing infectious disease. two of the most common routes of disease transmission.
Overcrowding increases exposure through direct con­ Direct contact or animal‐to‐animal contact (nose to
tact between animals and increases stress, which can nose) is also common. Vector transfer of disease via
lead to decreased immunity. Stress can also lead to reac­ arthropods is another cause for concern. Environmental
tivation of latent infection, which causes increased shed­ transmission necessitates proper sanitation protocols.
ding, and increased infection across the population. The
presence of younger individuals and others with naive
immune systems (not fully vaccinated) makes the popu­ Prevention
lation more susceptible to disease outbreak. The housing
of animals according to immune status should be imple­ Prevention is paramount to success in the management of
mented, with the naive individuals (young and/or unvac­ infectious disease outbreaks. The staff and supervisors of
cinated) housed separately from the adults. facilities need to understand and identify the risks and then
Minimum space requirements should be considered develop infection control policies and procedures for the
for each facility. The Humane Society of the United facility and education and training protocols for the staff.

Clinical Small Animal Internal Medicine Volume II, First Edition. Edited by David S. Bruyette.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Companion website: www.wiley.com/go/bruyette/clinical