Dogs Vaccinated with Common Lyme Disease Vaccines Do Not Respond to IR6, the Conserved Immunodominant Region of the VlsE Surface Protein ofBorrelia burgdorferi

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Abstract
A 25-amino-acid synthetic peptide (C6peptide) derived from an immunodominant conserved region (designated IR6) of the VlsE protein ofBorrelia burgdorferihas been identified and used to construct immunoenzyme-based diagnostic procedures. These procedures have excellent sensitivity and specificity. Previous reports have demonstrated the usefulness of the C6peptide as an antigen for the serodiagnosis of human and canine Lyme disease. Results indicated that assays based on the C6peptide were nonreactive to sera from vaccinated nonexposed animals. The purpose of the present study was to confirm these results in a controlled trial by testing sera from experimentally vaccinated dogs known to be uninfected. Nine specific-pathogen-free beagles were assigned to one of three vaccine groups, each containing three dogs. Each group received one of three commercial Lyme vaccines: RECOMBITEK Lyme (Merial), LymeVax (Fort Dodge Animal Health), and Galaxy Lyme (Schering-Plough Animal Health). Each animal was administered a total of five doses of vaccine over a period of 39 weeks. Serum samples were collected prior to vaccination and then on a weekly basis from weeks 3 to 18 and from weeks 33 to 43. Selected samples were tested by the immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and the Western blot (WB) assay using whole-cellB. burgdorferiantigen extracts, and the results were compared to those obtained with two immunoenzyme-based procedures formatted by using the C6peptide. Serum specimens from all animals were reactive to the IFA and WB assay at week 5 and became highly reactive following the administration of multiple doses of vaccine. All serum specimens were uniformly nonreactive in the C6peptide immunoenzyme procedures at all time points throughout the study.