Abstract:
Lyme borreliosis is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu leto. This disease has been recently reported in
Pakistan but the efficacy of different antibiotics against it has not been tested. Therefore, this study was
aimed at evaluating the efficacy of different antibiotics in curing this disease under field conditions and
ascertaining the role of C-reactive protein as a prognostic agent in Borrelia-positive dogs. For this purpose,
twenty-four dogs of different breeds were used in the study. These dogs were found Borrelia positive on
PCR and equally divided into four groups (n=6). Group A was treated with doxycycline @ 10mg/Kg, B
with azithromycin @ 20mg/Kg and C with clindamycin @ 11mg/Kg, and D with amoxicillin @2mg/
Kg. All drugs were administered orally in different forms, i.e., tablet, capsule, or suspension as per the
availability. Five clinical biomarkers including fever, anorexia, arthritis, lameness, and lymphadenopathy
were used to declare the status of the disease at days zero, 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th. Serum samples
were also collected on the same days for determining C-reactive protein (CRP) values. The results of
clinical biomarkers showed that doxycycline cured the dogs immediately when checked on the 7th day
followed by amoxicillin on the 21st day; whereas dogs treated with azithromycin and clindamycin did not
show promising results. Besides, results of CRP showed that doxycycline had significantly (p < 0.05)
greater efficacy than Azithromycin till the end of the trial and clindamycin till the 21st day. However, the
comparative efficacy of doxycycline and amoxicillin showed a significantly (p < 0.05) greater efficacy
of the former till the 7th day. These results have proved that doxycycline is the best drug, followed by
amoxicillin, to treat dogs suffering from Lyme borreliosis. Moreover, it is also ascertained that CRP can
be effectively used to monitor the prognosis of Lyme borreliosis in pet dogs. These results will be helpful
for the pet clinicians and veterinarians working to diagnose, treat, and monitor Lyme borreliosis under
field conditions.
Keywords:
Antibiotics
,
Dogs
,
Clinical biomarkers
,
Lyme borreliosis