{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]],"date-time":"2026-08-28T02:32:14Z","timestamp":1787884334796,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,21]],"date-time":"2025-04-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1745193600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,21]],"date-time":"2025-04-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1745193600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100001003","name":"Boehringer Ingelheim","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100001003","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Parasites Vectors"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>Two studies were conducted to determine whether treatment with NexGard<jats:sup>\u00ae<\/jats:sup> Plus (NP), a combination of afoxolaner, moxidectin, and pyrantel, prevents transmission of <jats:italic>Borrelia burgdorferi<\/jats:italic> to dogs by naturally infected <jats:italic>Ixodes scapularis<\/jats:italic>.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>For each study, 20 dogs were randomly assigned to two groups (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u200910\/group): NP and negative control. Twenty-eight days post-treatment, each dog was infested with approximately 50 <jats:italic>I. scapularis<\/jats:italic> that had a 60% <jats:italic>B. burgdorferi<\/jats:italic> infection rate in study 1 and a 38.5% infection rate in study 2. Five days post-infestation, ticks were counted and removed. The <jats:italic>B. burgdorferi<\/jats:italic>-specific C6 antibody was tested for using the SNAP<jats:sup>\u00ae<\/jats:sup> 4Dx<jats:sup>\u00ae<\/jats:sup> test (IDEXX) and the Lyme Quant C6 test with serum collected before treatment and infestation and 21, 35, 49, 63, and 75\u00a0days post-infestation. Skin biopsies were collected 76\u00a0days post-infestation and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) conducted to detect <jats:italic>B. burgdorferi<\/jats:italic> DNA.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>On the day of count and removal, no ticks were found on treated dogs, while control dogs had an average of 25.1 ticks in study 1 and 19.6 ticks in study 2, for efficacy of 100% (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\u2009\u2264\u20090.0001). All dogs were seronegative before infestation. The first dog in the control groups became seropositive 21\u00a0days post-infestation in study 1 and 35\u00a0days post-infestation in study 2 by the SNAP 4Dx test and by 21\u00a0days post-infestation by the Lyme Quant C6 test in both studies. Ten of 10 dogs in the control group in both studies seroconverted by the end of the study. None of the skin biopsies from treated dogs were positive for <jats:italic>B. burgdorferi<\/jats:italic> DNA, while at least three of the four skin biopsies from each of the control dogs tested positive at the end of the studies. No clinical signs of Lyme disease were detected in any of the dogs.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>The results of these studies indicate that NexGard<jats:sup>\u00ae<\/jats:sup> Plus administered at a dose close to the minimum recommended dose of 2.5\u00a0mg\/kg afoxolaner is effective 28\u00a0days after a single treatment in the prevention of <jats:italic>B. burgdorferi<\/jats:italic> transmission from naturally infected <jats:italic>I. scapularis<\/jats:italic> ticks to dogs.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Graphical Abstract<\/jats:title>\n          <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s13071-025-06753-8","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,21]],"date-time":"2025-04-21T10:21:04Z","timestamp":1745230864000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["The ability of an oral combination of afoxolaner, moxidectin and pyrantel to protect dogs from Borrelia burgdorferi infections transmitted by Ixodes scapularis"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"18","author":[{"given":"Joseph","family":"Prullage","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pascal","family":"Dumont","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Arathy","family":"Nair","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Manyun","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Utami","family":"DiCosty","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ricarda","family":"S\u00fcssenberger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"6753_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"887","DOI":"10.1111\/jvim.15085","volume":"32","author":"MP Littman","year":"2018","unstructured":"Littman MP, Gerber B, Goldstein RE, Labato MA, Lappin MR, Moore GE. ACVIM consensus update on Lyme borreliosis in dogs and cats. J Vet Intern Med. 2018;32:887\u2013903. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/jvim.15085.","journal-title":"J Vet Intern Med"},{"key":"6753_CR2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"223","DOI":"10.1016\/j.vetpar.2014.02.015","volume":"201","author":"EB Mitchell","year":"2014","unstructured":"Mitchell EB, McCall JW, Chester ST, Larsen D. Efficacy of afoxolaner against Ixodes scapularis ticks in dogs. Vet Parasitol. 2014;201:223\u20135. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.vetpar.2014.02.015.","journal-title":"Vet Parasitol"},{"key":"6753_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"65","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cimid.2016.09.004","volume":"49","author":"CF Baker","year":"2016","unstructured":"Baker CF, McCall JW, McCall SD, Drag MD, Mitchell EB, Chester ST, et al. Ability of an oral formulation of afoxolaner to protect dogs from Borrelia burgdorferi infection transmitted by wild Ixodes scapularis ticks. 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The study was conducted according to state and national regulations regarding animal welfare.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"JP, PD, AN, ML, and RS are all current employees of\u00a0Boehringer Ingelheim. UD was a contract study investigator. Other than that, the authors declare no conflict of interest. This document is provided for scientific purposes only.","order":4,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"147"}}