A better blood test catches tick disease in dogs that the standard test misses

Ticks are carrying diseases like ehrlichiosis and Lyme disease into more places, and a dog cannot tell its vet where it hurts — so the yearly blood screen matters. In a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, researchers from Colorado State University, the University of Texas Medical Branch and Antech Diagnostics compared two leading screening tests against a reference standard. Both tests were strong on one tick-borne group (over 90% caught) and rarely gave false alarms (over 95% specific). The difference came with Ehrlichia, a bacterial infection that can quietly damage blood and organs: the newer Accuplex test caught 94% of positive samples, while the widely used clinic test caught 58%. One blood draw with Accuplex also screens for seven warning signs in all, including Lyme antibodies and heartworm. Some study authors work for the test's maker, which the paper discloses — but the comparison itself was published in the profession's own journal for vets everywhere to judge.

Mechanism: tech innovation