Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Oral treatment with afoxolaner, moxidectin, and pyrantel protects
By Prullage, Joseph et al.·Published in Parasites & vectors·2025·Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: The ability of an oral combination of afoxolaner, moxidectin and pyrantel to protect dogs from Borrelia burgdorferi infections transmitted by Ixodes scapularis.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs was tested to see if a treatment called NexGardPlus, which combines afoxolaner, moxidectin, and pyrantel, could prevent Lyme disease caused by ticks. In the study, none of the dogs that received NexGardPlus had any ticks on them after being exposed, while control dogs had an average of about 25 ticks each. Additionally, none of the treated dogs showed signs of Lyme disease or tested positive for the bacteria that causes it, while all control dogs did. This suggests that NexGardPlus is effective in protecting dogs from Lyme disease when given as directed.
People also search for: dog Lyme disease prevention · NexGardPlus for ticks · how to protect dog from Lyme disease
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Two studies were conducted to determine whether treatment with NexGardPlus (NP), a combination of afoxolaner, moxidectin, and pyrantel, prevents transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi to dogs by naturally infected Ixodes scapularis. METHODS: For each study, 20 dogs were randomly assigned to two groups (n = 10/group): NP and negative control. Twenty-eight days post-treatment, each dog was infested with approximately 50 I. scapularis that had a 60% B. burgdorferi infection rate in study 1 and a 38.5% infection rate in study 2. Five days post-infestation, ticks were counted and removed. The B. burgdorferi-specific C6 antibody was tested for using the SNAP4Dxtest (IDEXX) and the Lyme Quant C6 test with serum collected before treatment and infestation and 21, 35, 49, 63, and 75 days post-infestation. Skin biopsies were collected 76 days post-infestation and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) conducted to detect B. burgdorferi DNA. RESULTS: On the day of count and removal, no ticks were found on treated dogs, while control dogs had an average of 25.1 ticks in study 1 and 19.6 ticks in study 2, for efficacy of 100% (P ≤ 0.0001). All dogs were seronegative before infestation. The first dog in the control groups became seropositive 21 days post-infestation in study 1 and 35 days post-infestation in study 2 by the SNAP 4Dx test and by 21 days post-infestation by the Lyme Quant C6 test in both studies. Ten of 10 dogs in the control group in both studies seroconverted by the end of the study. None of the skin biopsies from treated dogs were positive for B. burgdorferi DNA, while at least three of the four skin biopsies from each of the control dogs tested positive at the end of the studies. No clinical signs of Lyme disease were detected in any of the dogs. CONCLUSIONS: The results of these studies indicate that NexGardPlus administered at a dose close to the minimum recommended dose of 2.5 mg/kg afoxolaner is effective 28 days after a single treatment in the prevention of B. burgdorferi transmission from naturally infected I. scapularis ticks to dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40259302/