Persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi in experimentally infected dogs after antibiotic treatment

Abstract

In specific-pathogen-free dogs experimentally infected with Borrelia burgdorferi by tick exposure, treatment with high doses of amoxicillin or doxycycline for 30 days diminished but failed to eliminate persistent infection. Although joint disease was prevented or cured in five of five amoxicillin- and five of six doxycycline-treated dogs, skin punch biopsies and multiple tissues from necropsy samples remained PCR positive and B. burgdorferi was isolated from one amoxicillin- and two doxycycline-treated dogs following antibiotic treatment. In contrast, B. burgdorferi was isolated from six of six untreated infected control dogs and joint lesions were found in four of these six dogs. Serum antibody levels to B. burgdorferi in all dogs declined after antibiotic treatment. Negative antibody levels were reached in four of six doxycycline- and four of six amoxicillin-treated dogs. However, in dogs that were kept in isolation for 6 months after antibiotic treatment was discontinued, antibody levels began to rise again, presumably in response to proliferation of the surviving pool of spirochetes. Antibody levels in untreated infected control dogs remained high.