Neurological manifestations in a cat with tick-borne relapsing fever caused by Borrelia persica

Tick-borne relapsing fever is an acute, potentially life-threatening, infectious disease affecting humans and animals. Relapsing fever (RF) caused by Borrelia persica has been reported to cause severe meningitis in humans, but neurological abnormalities associated with it have not been previously reported in cats. A 14-year-old female spayed domestic cat was diagnosed with RF borreliosis. It acutely developed general hyperesthesia and head tremors and deteriorated to having generalized tonic-clonic seizures within eight hours of the initial neurologic signs. These neurological abnormalities resolved within 48 h of initiating antibiotic treatment which included marbofloxacin and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and the spirochetemia was cleared. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) performed on DNA from whole blood confirmed the diagnosis of B. persica infection while other feline infectious diseases were ruled out. In vitro cultivation of B. persica from the cat's blood was successful and the isolate was passaged 10 times until frozen at −80 °C. This is the first report of neurological manifestations occurring in a cat with tick-borne relapsing fever. Further research is needed to understand the pathogenesis of B. persica as a possible cause of neuroborreliosis in cats.