Canine granulocytopathy syndrome: neutrophil dysfunction in a dog with recurrent infections

A male Irish Setter dog had a clinical history of recurrent life-threatening bacterial infections, with associated periods of pyrexia and severe neutrophilia. Examination of a mandibular lymph node biopsy made when the patient was 10 weeks old revealed subacute diffuse suppurative lymphadenitis with reticuloendothelial hyperplasia. Circulating leukocytes isolated from the dog when it was 5 months old had a marked bactericidal defect when compared with cells from clinically normal dogs of the same age. The clinical syndrome in the affected patient resembled that observed in the granulocytopathies described in man and other animals.