title: Identification of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in tick populations in Estonia, the European part of Russia and Belarus.
abstract: Anaplasma phagocytophilum is associated with diseases of goats, sheep, cattle, dogs and horses. In the beginning of the 1990s it was identified as a human pathogen, causing human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA) in the USA, Europe and the far east of Russia. A. phagocytophilum is maintained in nature in an enzootic cycle including ticks as the main vector and a wide range of mammalian species as reservoirs. Ixodes ricinus and I. persulcatus ticks were collected in Estonia, Belarus and the European part of Russia and screened for the presence of A. phagocytophilum by real-time PCR. Positive samples were found only among I. ricinus, in 13.4% in the European part of Russia, 4.2% in Belarus, 1.7% in mainland Estonia and 2.6% on Saaremaa Island. Positive samples were sequenced for partial 16S rRNA, groESL and ankA genes and phylogenetic analyses were performed. The results showed that A. phagocytophilum circulating in Eastern Europe belongs to different groESL lineages and 16S rRNA gene variants and also consists of variable numbers of repetitive elements within the ankA gene.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Health Development, Tallinn, Estonia.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Katargina
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Geller
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alekseev
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dubinina
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Efremova
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mishaeva
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vasilenko
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuznetsova
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Järvekülg
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vene
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lundkvist
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Golovljova
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D041081:Anaplasma phagocytophilum / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D000712:Anaplasmosis / Q000382:microbiology*; D000818:Animals; D017089:Ankyrin Repeat / Q000235:genetics; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D018833:Chaperonins / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004957:Estonia; D006801:Humans; D018884:Ixodes / Q000145:classification* / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D002094:Republic of Belarus; D012426:Russia; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; C097970:GroESL protein, Bacteria; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D018833:Chaperonins