[OzGrant]

G'day all,
A lot of information is around regarding what to do to assist the dog when it has the first signs of kennel cough. I'm involved with a boarding kennel (>100 dogs at Christmas) and have been told that three returned dogs have KC. Can anyone tell me how long the KC pathogen (the splutter from a affected dogs cough) lasts. Once it has hit a the gound or a wall how long can it stay active to affect another dog. I know that parvo can last for months (even a year) but have no idea about KC.
Have disinfected the kennels etc but was wondering when I can feel safe.
Tks

[Yogi]

I am a little confused here. Kennels in my state require all dogs be pre-vaccinated for KC before they can be kenneled. Thus eliminating this problem. Being an Airborne virus it takes approximately 4 or 5 day and up to near 2 weeks before a dog shows signs of the illness. Untreated and in mild cases usually within 2 weeks at the most, the illness will clear itself. Based on this, one would assume that with proper cleaning and airing out, 2 to 3 weeks would suffice but to note, it is an airborne virus so having dogs in the future that have no been vaccinated prior to being kenneled could carry it in again or contract if from a dog up to a mile away.

[OzGrant]

Jogi,
Thanks for your quick reply.
Unfortunately the C5 vaccination only covers 2 strains of KC (offering no protection for the other 5 known strains plus mutations) All dogs including my own have been C5'ed but that has not stopped two my dogs, plus three client dogs contracting KC. Our kennels are daily high pressure hosed with hospital strength disinfectant, plus when parvo is suspected the kennels are additionally hosed bleached (this has also been done).

So back to my original question. "What is the KC pathogen life cycle"
E.g. if a dog coughs in the exercise yard on to the grass (that cannot be effectively be disinfected or bleached) how long will the pathogen stay active (hours, days, weeks or months).