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Is lyme disease contagious?

Lyme disease is something that is common in domestic animals, most commonly dogs, so the million dollar question is ‘is lyme disease contagious?’. The answer is a resounding no. Lyme disease is a vector-borne disease which means that is spread from a vector, in this case a tick, to a human or animal but it cannot be transmitted between these species hence it is not something that is contagious.

The habitat that lyme disease ticks live in is places such as forests, woodland, grassland and heathland which means that although it is somewhere that both humans and dogs can catch it, it is more likely for a dog to come into contact with a lyme tick because it will not be cautious over where it runs to and rolls around. You might stay on the track if walking it in the forest but the dog will charge off into the trees and bushes greatly increasing it’s exposure to ticks.

However if a dog is bitten by a lyme disease tick and the tick travel back home with it attached it is possible from the tick to jump from one host to another and bite them, giving them lyme disease too.

This does not make the answer to ‘is lyme disease contagious?’ any less of a no but it does mean that if you have a pet that has contracted the disease it is possible that it can lead to you having the disease just by being in it’s close proximity.