title: Stray dogs of northern Jordan as reservoirs of ticks and tick-borne hemopathogens.
abstract: Dogs are competent reservoir hosts of several hemopathogens including zoonotic agents and can serve as readily available source of nutrition for many blood-feeding arthropods. Three hemopathogens had been detected for the first time in Jordan. The PCR prevalence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Hepatozoon canis, and piroplasmid DNA were 39.5%, 28.9%, and 7.9% (n=38) respectively. Sequencing of amplicons of PCR with universal primers targeting the 18S rRNA gene of piroplasmids shows the highest similarity to equine piroplasmids species Theileria equi from two dogs and Babesia caballi from a single dog. Ticks of two genera Rhipicephalus and Haemaphysalis, were detected in this study (n=268). The brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus was the most abundant species (95.1%, n=255), followed by Haemaphysalis erinacei (3%, n=8) and Haemaphysalis parva (1.9%, n=5). The two Haemaphysalis species were detected for the first time from dogs in Jordan. Regarding its high prevalence, we expect R. sanguineus being a possible vector of detected pathogens.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Parasitology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Palackého 1-3, 612 42, Brno, Czech Republic. moneeb_78@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Moneeb Ahmad
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Qablan
authors.forename: Michaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kubelová
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Siroký
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Modrý
authors.forename: Zuhair Sami
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Amr
mesh_terms: D041081:Anaplasma phagocytophilum / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D000818:Animals; D001403:Babesia / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001769:Blood / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology; D003044:Coccidia / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004197:Disease Reservoirs; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000469:parasitology*; D004285:Dogs; D004478:Ectoparasitic Infestations / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D005260:Female; D026863:Ixodidae / Q000145:classification / Q000254:growth & development*; D007597:Jordan; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D016794:Theileria / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017282:Tick-Borne Diseases / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*