My dog has brucellosis. Is that a risk for me?
B. canis is a species of Brucella which can infect dogs. This kind can be transmitted to dogs, but most of the dog infections do not result in human illness. Althouth veterinarians exposed to the blood of the infected animals are at risk, the pet owners are not.
One of the reasons for this is that they rarely are in contact with the blood, semen or placenta of the dog. The bacteria can be cleared from the animal organism in a few days of treatment; however, re-infection is common and some animal fluids can be contaminated for weeks. Persons with weak immunity (patients with cancer, HIV – infected persons or transplantation patients) should not be in contact with dogs because they can become infected with B. canis.