Due to the functional inactivation of the gene encoding for the enzyme that is involved in the oligosaccharide galactose-α-1,3-galactose (α-Gal) synthesis, humans and Old-World primates are able to produce a large amount of antibodies against the glycan epitope. Apart from being involved in the hyperacute organ rejection in humans, anti-α-Gal antibodies have shown a protective effect against some pathogenic agents and an implication in the recently recognized tick-induced mammalian meat allergy. Conversely, non-primate mammals, including dogs, have the ability to synthetize α-Gal and, thus, their immune system is not expected to naturally generate the antibodies toward this self-antigen molecule. However, in the current study, we detected specific IgG, IgM, and IgE antibodies to α-Gal in sera of clinically healthy dogs by an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the first time. Furthermore, in a tick infestation experiment, we showed that bites of Ixodes ricinus induce the immune response to α-Gal in dogs and that the resulting antibodies (IgM) might be protective against Anaplasma phagocytophilum. These findings may help lead to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms involved in mammalian meat allergy and tick-host-pathogen interactions, but they also open up the question about the possibility that dogs could develop an allergy to mammalian meat after tick bites, similar to that in humans.

Department for Companion Animals Small Animal Clinic University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna 1210 Vienna Austria

Department of Pathobiology Institute of Parasitology University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna 1210 Vienna Austria

Department of Veterinary Pathobiology Center for Veterinary Health Sciences Oklahoma State University Stillwater OK 74078 USA

Institute of Parasitology Biology Center Czech Academy of Sciences 117 20 České Budějovice Czech Republic

SaBio Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Cinegéticos IREC CSIC UCLM JCCM 13005 Ciudad Real Spain

UMR BIPAR INRA ANSES Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort Université Paris Est 14 rue Pierre et Marie Curie 94706 Maisons Alfort France

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