The aim of the study was to compare the serum protein profile of Bernese Mountain Dogs
(BMDs) reacting positive for Bb in snap testing with the serum protein profile of dogs of other
breeds (healthy and with clinical borreliosis) using the MALDI time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF)
technique. The observations included five groups of dogs. BMDs reacting positively to Bb in
snap serological testing and showing symptoms of borreliosis (group 1), BMDs for which no
borreliosis symptoms were determined but with seropositivity for Bb determined with snap serological tests (group 2), clinically healthy BMDs with no antibodies for Bb found in the serum
(group 3), five dogs of different breeds, reacting positively in serological testing, in which borreliosis symptoms were observed (group 4), clinically healthy dogs of different breeds with negative
reaction in tests towards Bb (group 5). A proteomic analysis demonstrated the presence of five
identical protein fractions among all five groups. An additional two protein fractions of approximately 7.630 and 15.260 kDa were found in all the serum samples obtained from the dogs positive for borrelia in a snap test, both in those exhibiting symptoms of borreliosis, and seropositive
BMDs not presenting symptoms of the disease. These two additional protein fractions may be
used to differentiate between seropositive and seronegative B. burgdorferi dogs and may be considered a seropositivity marker, however, it cannot be used to differentiate between animals with
the clinical form of the disease and those that are only seropositive.