In 2018 and 2019, spotted fever was suspected in 3 dogs in 3 US states. The dogs had fever and hematological abnormalities; blood samples were Rickettsia seroreactive. Identical Rickettsia DNA sequences were amplified from the samples. Multilocus phylogenetic analysis showed the dogs were infected with a novel Rickettsia species related to human Rickettsia pathogens.
Keywords: Rickettsia; Spotted-fever group Rickettsia; United States; bacteria; dogs; parasites; tickborne diseases; vector-borne diseases; zoonoses.