The incidence of Lyme disease in Vermont has seen a “sudden and dramatic increase” since the end of 2003, a Shelburne veterinarian says.

Before 2003, the cases of Lyme disease Gary Solow saw in dogs were usually in animals that had visited Connecticut, Rhode Island or southern Maine.

Solow used to treat less than one case of Lyme disease a year; now he sees 25 or more a year.

And the number of people with Lyme disease increased from 54 in 2005 to 105 last year and the number of cases contracted within the state increased from 29 to 62, the Vermont Health Department said. More than half the cases were in Bennington County