Merino F J, Serrano J L, Saz J V, Nebreda T, Gegundez M, Beltran M
Servicio de Microbiología Clínica, Hospital General del INSALUD de Soria, Spain.
Eur J Epidemiol. 2000 Feb;16(2):97-100. doi: 10.1023/a:1007690807637.
From the point of view of the human disease, dogs are the most important animal reservoir of Lyme borreliosis; therefore, they are used as 'sentinel animals'. In order to know the epidemiological characteristics of dogs with antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi, 146 canine sera samples collected during 1993-94 have been studied. The antibody detection was made by an indirect immunofluorescence method and confirmed by a haemagglutination test. Seventeen dogs (11.6%) were seropositive, of which seven were hunting dogs, three were shepherd dogs, five were domestic pets, one was a watchdog and one was a stray dog. Seven dogs had longhair phenotype, 2 medium length type, 4 hard-hair and the other 4 were short-haired. Twelve seropositive dogs were males and five were females. All seropositive dogs were more than 1 year old. The dogs with greater seroprevalence were those that harboured ticks more often than the rest. Spring and summer were the seasons when more ticks were observed. The seroprevalence found in dogs was similar to that previously obtained in humans in this area. This finding gave evidence to an intimate association between human and canine seroprevalence.
从人类疾病的角度来看，狗是莱姆病最重要的动物宿主；因此，它们被用作“哨兵动物”。为了了解携带抗伯氏疏螺旋体抗体的犬类的流行病学特征，对1993年至1994年期间采集的146份犬血清样本进行了研究。抗体检测采用间接免疫荧光法，并通过血凝试验进行确认。17只狗（11.6%）血清呈阳性，其中7只是猎犬，3只是牧羊犬，5只是家养宠物，1只是看门狗，1只是流浪狗。7只狗为长毛表型，2只为中长型，4只为硬毛型，另外4只为短毛型。12只血清阳性狗为雄性，5只为雌性。所有血清阳性狗都超过1岁。血清阳性率较高的狗比其他狗更常携带蜱虫。春季和夏季是观察到更多蜱虫的季节。在狗身上发现的血清阳性率与该地区此前在人类身上获得的结果相似。这一发现证明了人类和犬类血清阳性率之间存在密切关联。
