Streptococci in an Aboriginal Australian Community: Is there a link between dogs and humans?

Abstract

Dogs are an important part of modern Aboriginal Australian life in their role as hunters, companions and spiritual protectors. People in Aboriginal communities want their dogs to be healthy and therefore dog health programs that treat dogs and assist people to care for their dogs are popular. In the Yarrabah Aboriginal community, dogs are known to carry a number of zoonotic micro-organisms with the potential to cause disease in humans. A combination of the unhealthy appearance of free roaming dogs and lack of veterinary services has resulted in community concerns about the transmission of zoonoses. The community needs accurate information relevant to their local situation in order to develop strategies to manage canine zoonoses. This thesis is a small attempt to provide evidence about one group of bacteria with zoonotic potential, streptococci. This study was conducted in the Yarrabah Aboriginal community of far north Queensland. In other Aboriginal Australian communities dogs have been previously found to carry streptococci. In Aboriginal populations, streptococcal disease causes significant morbidity and mortality associated with invasive infections, poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis and rheumatic fever, all of which are overrepresented in the Aboriginal population. The shared environment of dogs and people in many Aboriginal communities has led to the hypothesis that dogs in these communities are reservoirs for some species of streptococci capable of causing disease in humans. This thesis had four aims: (1) Isolate streptococci from dogs and characterise the strains; (2) Investigate associations between health and social parameters of dogs and isolation of streptococci; (3) Isolate streptococci from children with skin sores and determine if there was any indication of the strains being shared with dogs; (4) Translate scientific knowledge, including the new information from this study into community action to improve the health of dogs.