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Clin. Vaccine Immunol. doi:10.1128/CVI.00340-07
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Quantitative Measurement of C₆ Antibody Following Treatment of Borrelia burgdorferi Antibody-Positive Nonclinical Dogs

Durham Veterinary Hospital PC, 178 Parmelee Hill Road, Durham, CT 06422; Dept. of Research and Development, Dept. of Marketing, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., Westbrook, ME 04092

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: tom-oconnor{at}IDEXX.com.

	Abstract

The detection of antibody to the B. burgdorferi C₆ peptide using enzyme-linked-immunoassays is a widely accepted method for the diagnosis of Lyme infection in dogs and in humans. Antibody to the C₆ peptide is highly specific for B. burgdorferi and declines following treatment of dogs and humans exposed to B. burgdorferi. A quantitative assay to determine C₆ antibody levels was developed and used to measure changes in antibody levels following antibiotic treatment of B. burgdorferi positive-nonclinical dogs. One hundred and thirty two client-owned dogs were used in the study; 64 were negative, 53 of 68 positive animals received treatment and 15 were untreated controls. Test sera were collected at 3, 6 and 12 months from seropositive dogs receiving treatment and untreated controls. Dogs in the treated group were assigned to moderate-to-high ( 29 U/ml) and low (< 29 U/ml) C₆ level groups because the change in the C₆ level post treatment was dependent on the level prior to treatment. There was a significant decline in the 30 dogs with moderate-to-high initial C₆ levels that exceeded the maximal decline of the untreated control dogs in all cases 6 months (16 data points) and 12 months (29 data points) post treatment. There was little change in C₆ level following antibiotic therapy in the 23 dogs with low initial C₆ levels. The quantitative C₆ antibody test can be used to measure changes in C₆ antibody levels following treatment of antibody-positive nonclinical dogs.