Tick-borne infectious diseases of dogs

Tick-transmitted infections are an emerging problem in dogs. In addition to causing serious disease in traditional tropical and semi-tropical regions, they are now increasingly recognized as a cause of disease in dogs in temperate climates and urban environments. Furthermore, subclinically infected companion animals could provide a reservoir for human tick-transmitted infectious agents, such as Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Ehrlichia ewingii, the Ehrlichia phagocytophila group and Rickettsia conorii. Here, we discuss the emergence of new canine tick-transmitted diseases, which results from several factors, including the expansion of the tick range into urban and semi-urban areas worldwide, the movement of infected dogs into previously non-endemic areas, and the advent of novel molecular techniques for diagnosis and pathogen identification.