Hepatic abscesses in beagle puppies

Postmortem examination revealed hepatic abscesses in 49 laboratory beagle dogs dying during the first 10 weeks of life. The abscesses appeared to be omphalogenic in origin and frequently contained Gram-positive coccoid bacteria most often identified as Staphylococcus and less often as Streptococcus. A few abscesses contained Gram-positive, branching, beaded, filamentous organisms never successfully cultured. Puppies with hepatic abscesses died as early as 3 days of age and 46 (94%) were dead by 4 weeks of age.