Use of Physiological and Clinical Biomarkers as Indicators of Antibiotic Efficacy against Lyme Borreliosis in Pet Dogs under Field Conditions.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]