Increased prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi infections in Bernese Mountain Dogs: a possible breed predisposition

Table 3 Evaluation of replies to questions asked by telephone interview regarding the environment the dogs lived in

		Bernese Mountain Dogs		Control dogs
		number of dogs	B. burgdorferi positive [%]	number of dogs	B. burgdorferi positive [%]
Was the area you lived in rural or urban¹	Rural	136	59	37	11
	Urban	6	50	10	30
Did your dogs have access to the house or did he live only in a kennel?	Access to house	127	56	41	17
	Kennel only	16	81	6	0
Had your dogs access to a run?	Yes	136	60	45	16
	No	7	43	2	0
Could your dog escape from the house or the run?	Yes	28	50	4	0
	No	115	61	43	16
How often did you walk the dog a day?	1 time	68	62	18	11
	2 times	51	57	16	19
	3 times	20	50	8	0
	>3 times	3	67	5	40
What percentage (%) of time did you spend in the woods on your walks?²	Range	0–100		0–100
	Median	50		50

¹Significant difference between Bernese Mountain Dogs and control dogs (p = 0.001).
²Bernese Mountain Dogs with antibodies against B. burgdorferi spent a significantly higher percentage of time in the woods on walks than those without (p = 0.049).

ISSN: 1746-6148