Romping through summer fields seems like a harmless pleasure for dogs, horses, and humans alike. But just one bite from the wrong tick can rob an animal of that pastime. The bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi catch rides with certain tick species and can cause Lyme disease in animals the ticks bite. Catching the disease early is paramount because it becomes progressively harder to fight as the bacteria conduct guerilla warfare from hiding places in their hosts’ joints, nervous tissues, and organs.

A newly released test for Lyme disease in horses and dogs, developed by researchers at the Animal Health Diagnostic Center (AHDC) at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., should help improve the understanding of the disease and pinpoint time of infection, opening possibilities for earlier intervention and more effective treatment plans.

"We’ve offered Lyme disease testing for years," said Bettina Wagner, DVM, PhD, Harry M. Zweig Associate Professor in Equine Health and lead developer. "But we have recently been able to improve our techniques with the multiplex testing procedure. The new test exceeds its predecessors in accuracy, specificity, and analytical sensitivity."

The multiplex procedure, which can detect three different antibodies produced in response to the bacteria associated with Lyme disease using a single test on the sample, eliminates the need for separate tests. In addition, it requires smaller samples and answers more questions about the disease