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.Lyme borreliosis (LB) is a zoonotic disease caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi (5, 41). An animal reservoir of approximately 40 mammals and birds has been established (15) in Europe. The disease is transmitted primarily by ticks feeding on mammals and birds, with the most common vector in Europe being the tick Ixodes ricinus (1). In humans, LB in its early stages is characterized by influenza-like symptoms, followed in 60 to 80% of the cases by erythema migrans (40), a skin lesion that spreads outward from around the site of a tick bite. If untreated, the disease may proceed to a second or a third stage in which neurological disorders and arthritis are common symptoms (42). Much less is known about LB in animals than is known about the disease in humans. The most common symptom of LB in dogs is migratory arthritis (30) without divergent radiographic findings. Other but less common symptoms reported in dogs are carditis (25), glomerulonephritis (17), and neuritis (2; B. M. Feder, R. J. Joseph, S. D. Moroff, et al., Abstr. Proc. 9th ACVIM, p. 892, 1991). B. burgdorferi infections or serologic evidence of B. burgdorferi infections have been reported in dogs in the United States (3,7,26,29,30). In Europe, relatively few reports exist on LB in animals. In Sweden (13), Denmark (18), Germany (20,21,35,45,47), The Netherlands (19), the United Kingdom (32), Belgium (33), France (9,11,12,14), Switzerland (37), Slovakia (43), Slovenia (34), and Spain (10), antibodies to B. burgdorferi and/or clinical symptoms of LB have been found in dogs. However, in Europe, the use of dogs as sentinel animals for the estimation of the risk of Lyme borreliosis for humans in that region has not been examine...

The performance of 11 commercially available enzyme immunoassays (EIA) and four Western blot (WB) tests for the detection of IgM and IgG antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi were compared. A total of 229 serum specimens were used: 26 from patients with early Lyme borreliosis, 13 from patients with late Lyme borreliosis, 62 from healthy controls and 128 from patients with disorders clinically mimicking Lyme borreliosis and/or known to cause cross-reactivity in Lyme borreliosis serological tests (patient control group). In specimens from patients with early Lyme borreliosis, the sensitivity of the individual tests ranged from 35 to 81% for detection of IgM. In late Lyme borreliosis, sensitivity of the tests ranged from 46 to 92%. In healthy controls the specificity of the tests ranged from 89 to 100% and from 82 to 97% for IgM and IgG tests, respectively. In the patient control group, specificity of the tests ranged from 75 to 90% for IgM and from 84 to 100% for IgG tests. The Behring (Germany) and Genzyme Virotech (Germany) IgM EIA tests showed the best performance in detecting early Lyme borreliosis. For the detection of late Lyme borreliosis, the Dako (Denmark) IgG test was the best despite its low sensitivity. The maximum sensitivity of Western blotting for detecting IgM in patients with early Lyme borreliosis and IgG in patients with late Lyme borreliosis was 50 and 46%, respectively. The use of an EIA-WB two-test protocol improved the specificity and positive predictive values of the EIA results but caused a significant loss in sensitivity. Patients with Epstein-Barr virus or cytomegalovirus infection who had a positive reaction in the IgM EIA could not be discriminated from patients with early Lyme borreliosis with the help of Western blotting. Hence, positive and negative predictive values in combination with sensitivity and specificity values indicated that the exclusion of these infections was more relevant than the confirmation of a positive IgM EIA with Western blot.

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Two hundred serum specimens including 13 sera from patients with early Lyme borreliosis, 21 patients with late Lyme borreliosis, 15 rheumatoid factor positive sera, 31 sera from patients with syphilis and 84 sera from healthy controls were used to evaluate the following assays for the detection of antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi: two in-house enzyme immunoassays (EIAs), two in-house immunofluorescent antibody assays (IFAs), a commercial haemagglutination assay (HA) (Diagast) and four commercial EIAs (Diagast, Dako, Diamedix, Whittaker Bioproducts). In early and late Lyme borreliosis sera sensitivity ranged from 8% to 62% and from 62% to 86% respectively. With the exception of the Dako EIA, which was signifcantly more sensitive in early Lyme borreliosis (62%) than the Diagast HA (8%) (p = 0.05), differences in sensitivity were not significant. In healthy controls the specificity was > or = 95% for all tests. Taking into account sensitivity, specificity, intra-test and inter-test precision, ease of performance and cost, the Dako EIA and Diamedix EIA were shown to be good alternatives to the in-house EIA and in-house IFA. Because of its low sensitivity in diagnosis of both early and late Lyme borreliosis, use of the Diagast HA should be discouraged.