New test for Lyme disease in horses and dogs-Horsetalk

Cornell University now offers a new test for Lyme disease in horses and dogs. The new test reveals the history of infection and simplifies the process of examination.

The bacteria that cause Lyme disease are Borrelia burgdorferi. Catch a ride with certain species of ticks and can cause Lyme disease in animals that bite ticks.

Early treatment of disease is essential because it becomes progressively more difficult to fight against bacteria guerrilla hideouts of conduct in the joints, nervous tissues and organs of its host.

The new test for horses and dogs, developed by researchers in Animal Health Diagnostic Center (AHDC) of the Faculty of veterinary medicine at Cornell, will improve scientists ' understanding of disease and determine the time of infection, open the possibilities of intervention plans earlier and more effective treatment.

"We have offered evidence for years, Lyme disease," explains lead developer Dr Bettina Wagner, but recently were able to improve our techniques with the test procedures complex. "

"The new test outperforms predecessors of precision, specificity and analytical sensitivity".

The procedure of multiplex, which can detect three different antibodies produced in response to the bacteria associated with Lyme disease with a single test in the sample, eliminates the need for different tests.

In addition, it requires smaller samples and more answers questions about the disease.

Multiplex technology has been used in the last decade, but the diagnosis is the first veterinary diagnostic laboratory test for Lyme disease.

Different types of antibodies can be found in the body at different stages of infection. The new test can distinguish and measure these differences, giving more information about the time of the disease.

The bacteria that causes Lyme disease is particularly difficult to detect with Wagner, because after the infection, they tend to hide where not found. They burrow in the joints of dogs, causing arthritis and lameness. Has also been associated with Lyme infection in severe renal disease of the dog.

In humans and horses, also plays in the nervous system, spine or brain, causing pain, paralysis or behavioural changes.

So far these clinical signs appear, bacteria are usually not in practice now.

"Now we can distinguish between infection and vaccination and also between the stages of initial infection and chronic," said Wagner.

"It was not possible before." "You have been able to tell if an animal has been infected, but not when it became infected or to what extent the infection had developed".

Evidence and information provided can help advanced veterinary about treatment options.

After the end of the long treatment, veterinarians usually perform follow-up tests to see if it was a success.