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Abstract
Military Working Dogs (MWDs) are not routinely tested for tick-borne infections aside from serology for tick-borne infections at acquisition and just prior to departure to a duty location. However, MWDs are treated on a monthly basis with a topical spot-on tick-prevention product. Currently there are no prevalence studies concerning tick-borne infections in dogs from the Republic of Korea (ROK), although studies in rodents and ticks have demonstrated an abundance of infectious organisms. Our retrospective study utilized banked sera from 1997, 2002, and 2007 for ELISA and IFA testing as well as banked whole blood from 2007 for PCR. Our study revealed that, although many MWDs were seropositive for tick-borne infections, none was positive via PCR amplification. Our results could indicate exposure without contraction of disease, previous infection with residual antibodies, low sensitivity of our PCR, or cross-reactivity of our serologic testing with other antibodies.