which emerging vector-borne diseases should I be screening for in dogs in my region?

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Accepted Answer

The core panel for canine vector-borne disease screening is determined by your geographic region, but the organisms most consistently warranting routine testing across North America and Europe are Dirofilaria immitis, Ehrlichia canis/E. ewingii, Anaplasma phagocytophilum/A. platys, and Borrelia burgdorferi — all detectable with a single commercial point-of-care test (SNAP 4Dx Plus).345 Geographic prevalence drives which pathogens to prioritize. In the southeastern United States, D. immitis antigen positivity runs 2.6% and Ehrlichia spp. antibody positivity runs 5.2% — the highest rates in the country for those two pathogens.5 Ehrlichia spp. positivity in the Southeast increased fourfold between earlier surveys and 2013–2019 (from 1.3% to 5.2%), driven in part by expanded detection of E. ewingii and expansion of vector tick populations.5 In the northeastern United States, B. burgdorferi antibody positivity reaches 12.1% and Anaplasma spp. 7.3%, with state-level seroprevalence for B. burgdorferi exceeding 5% in Connecticut (15.5%), Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, West Virginia, Minnesota, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.35 In south-central Texas specifically, D. immitis seroprevalence averaged 11.7%, Ehrlichia spp. 8.4%, Anaplasma spp. 4.3%, and B. burgdorferi 0.2% over a six-year period.4 Lyme nephritis is the most consequential outcome of B. burgdorferi infection and warrants screening even in dogs with low individual risk in endemic areas. Only ≤10% of infected dogs develop polyarthritis, but an estimated 1–5% develop protein-losing nephropathy, which is often fatal despite antimicrobial therapy.3 Retriever breeds carry a suggested predisposition to Lyme nephritis.3 Any proteinuric dog in an endemic region should have B. burgdorferi serology included in the workup — in one endemic-region cohort, 35% of proteinuric dogs tested positive for at least one vector-borne