title: Molecular detection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in cattle and Ixodes persulcatus ticks.
abstract: The tick-borne pathogen, Anaplasma phagocytophilum (A. phagocytophilum), the causative agent of human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA), is increasingly becoming a public health concern as an aetiological agent for emerging infectious disease. We found A. phagocytophilum infection in a pooled sample of field-collected Ixodes persulcatus (I. persulcatus) ticks from one district in Hokkaido, Japan. Thus, to further investigate the prevalence in field-collected ticks, we used PCR assays targeting the A. phagocytophilum gene encoding 44 kDa major outer membrane protein (p44) for screening of I. persulcatus ticks and samples from cattle from pastures. Out of the 281 I. persulcatus ticks, 20 (7.1%) were found to harbor A. phagocytophilum DNA. The infection rate for A. phagocytophilum in cattle was 3.4% (42/1251). In future studies, it will be necessary to investigate effects of the infection in order to understand its pathogenesis of A. phagocytophilum in domestic animals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Disease Control, Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0818, Japan.
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Murase
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Konnai
authors.forename: Arata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hidano
authors.forename: Naftali W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Githaka
authors.forename: Takuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Ai
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takano
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kawabata
authors.forename: Manabu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ato
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tajima
authors.forename: Motoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tajima
authors.forename: Misao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Onuma
authors.forename: Shiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Murata
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohashi
mesh_terms: D041081:Anaplasma phagocytophilum / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D000712:Anaplasmosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D000818:Animals; D001179:Arthropod Vectors / Q000382:microbiology; D002417:Cattle / Q000382:microbiology*; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D018884:Ixodes / Q000382:microbiology*; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial