Serum samples from 93 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and nine gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) trapped in Wisconsin and 23 coyotes (Canis latrans) trapped in Wisconsin and Minnesota were tested for antibodies to Borrelia sp. with an indirect fluorescent antibody test which used Borrelia burgdorferi as the whole-cell antigen. Seven red foxes (8%) and two coyotes (9%) had antibody titers ≥1:64. All the positive samples were from areas known to be endemic for human Lyme disease. Implications for the epizootiology of Lyme borreliosis in wild canids are not well understood, but even if these species are not actual reservoirs of B. burgdorferi they could serve to increase the range of the vector and establish new endemic foci of the spirochete.
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1 January 1989
Antibodies to Borrelia sp. in Wild Foxes and Coyotes from Wisconsin and Minnesota
James J. Kazmierczak,
Elizabeth C. Burgess
Journal of Wildlife Diseases
Vol. 25 • No. 1
January 1989
Vol. 25 • No. 1
January 1989
Borrelia sp.
Canis latrans
coyote
gray fox
Lyme disease
red fox
serologic survey