Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Testing dogs in Australia for Lyme disease bacteria
By Irwin, Peter J et al.·Published in Parasites & vectors·2017·School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Australia·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Searching for Lyme borreliosis in Australia: results of a canine sentinel study.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study tested 555 dogs in Australia for Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness, but found no evidence of infection. One dog showed exposure to a different tick-related bacteria, Anaplasma, but the rest were negative for Lyme and other similar diseases. Some dogs had elevated antibody levels, likely due to past vaccinations or exposure to other tick-borne pathogens, but these results do not indicate active Lyme disease. Overall, the findings suggest that Lyme disease is not present in Australia, although false positives can occur from other tick-related infections.
People also search for: "dog Lyme disease symptoms Australia" · "tick-borne diseases in dogs" · "Anaplasma exposure in dogs"
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Lyme borreliosis is a common tick-borne disease of the northern hemisphere that is caused by bacterial spirochaetes of the Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato) (Bbsl) complex. To date, there has been no convincing evidence for locally-acquired Lyme borreliosis on the Australian continent and there is currently a national debate concerning the nature and distributions of zoonotic tick-transmitted infectious disease in Australia. In studies conducted in Europe and the United States, dogs have been used as sentinels for tick-associated illness in people since they readily contact ticks that may harbour zoonotic pathogens. Applying this principle, we used a combination of serological assays to test dogs living in tick 'hot spots' and exposed to the Australian paralysis tick, Ixodes holocyclus, for evidence of exposure to B. burgdorferi (s.l.) antigens and other vector-borne pathogens. RESULTS: Altogether, 555 dogs from four demographic groups were recruited into this study. One dog had evidence of exposure to Anaplasma spp. but no other dog was positive in screening tests. A total of 122 dogs (22.0%) had a kinetic ELISA (KELA) unit value > 100, and one dog with a high titre (399.9 KELA units) had been vaccinated against B. burgdorferi (sensu stricto) before travelling to Australia. Older dogs and those with a history of tick paralysis were significantly more likely to have a KELA unit value > 100. Line immunoassay analysis revealed moderate-to-weak (equivocal) bands in 27 (4.9%) dogs. CONCLUSIONS: Except for a single dog presumed to have been exposed to Anaplasma platys, infection with Anaplasma spp. B. burgdorferi (s.l.), Ehrlichia spp., and Dirofilaria immitis, was not detected in the cohort of Australian dogs evaluated in this study. These results provide further evidence that Lyme borreliosis does not exist in Australia but that cross-reacting antibodies (false positive results) are common and may be caused by the transmission of other tick-associated organisms.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28285585/