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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, March 2001, p. 844-848, Vol. 39, No. 3
Department of Medical Microbiology,
University of Maastricht, NL-6200 MD
Maastricht,1 and Department of
Medical Microbiology, General Hospital Arnhem, 6800 EG
Arnhem,2 The Netherlands
Received 31 July 2000/Returned for modification 17 October
2000/Accepted 14 December 2000
Serum samples from hunters (n = 440), their
hunting dogs (n = 448), and hunters without dog
ownership (n = 53) were collected in The Netherlands
at hunting dog trials and were tested for antibodies against
Borrelia burgdorferi by a whole-cell enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay. Additionally, 75 healthy pet dogs were tested. The
results of this study indicate that the seroprevalence among hunting
dogs (18%) was of the same order as the seroprevalence among pet dogs (17%) and hunters (15%). The seropositivity of a hunting dog was not
a significant indicator of increased risk of Lyme borreliosis for its
owner. No significant rise in seroprevalence was found in dogs older
than 24 months. This indicated that seropositivity after an infection
with B. burgdorferi in dogs is rather short, approximately
1 year. In humans this is considerably longer but is also not lifelong.
Therefore, the incidence of B. burgdorferi infections among
dogs was greater than that among hunters, despite a similar prevalence
of seropositivity among hunters and their hunting dogs. Because no
positive correlation was observed between the seropositivity of a
hunter and the seropositivity of the hunter's dog, direct transfer of
ticks between dog and hunter does not seem important and owning a dog
should not be considered a risk factor for Lyme borreliosis.
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.3.844-848.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Dogs as Sentinels for Human Lyme Borreliosis in The
Netherlands
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department
of Medical Microbiology, University of Maastricht, P.O. Box 616, NL-6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. Phone: 31.(0)43.388.10.15.
Fax: 31.(0)43.388.41.61. E-mail:
A.vandenBogaard{at}cpv.unimaas.nl.
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