Epidemiological characteristics of dogs with Lyme borreliosis in the province of Soria (Spain)

From the point of view of the human disease, dogs are the most important an imal reservoir of Lyme borreliosis; therefore, they are used as 'sentinel a nimals'. 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 ind irect 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 typ e, 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 ye ar old. The dogs with greater seroprevalence were those that harboured tick s more often than the rest. Spring and summer were the seasons when more ti cks were observed. The seroprevalence found in dogs was similar to that pre viously obtained in humans in this area. This finding gave evidence to an i ntimate association between human and canine seroprevalence.