Detection of Anaplasmataceae agents and co-infection with other tick-borne protozoa in dogs and Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato ticks

Abstract

Anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis are of serious health concern worldwide for animals and humans. In the present study, we report the occurrence of Anaplasma platys and Ehrlichia canis in dogs and Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato (s.l.) ticks from Peninsular Malaysia using a nested polymerase chain reaction assay based on amplification of the 16S rRNA gene. Anaplasma platys was detected from dogs and ticks with prevalence rates of 3.3% (8/240) and 2.9% (4/140), respectively. On the other hand, 12.9% (31/240) of the dogs and 0.7% (1/140) of the ticks were tested positive for E. canis. Additionally, co-infections of A. platys and E. canis with Babesia or Hepatozoon protozoa were also noted in this study. Double infection (E. canis + B. gibsoni) was observed in tick, whereas triple infections (E. canis + A. platys + B. vogeli and E. canis + A. platys + H. canis) were found in dogs. This study represents the first evidence of A. platys DNA in R. sanguineus s.l. in Malaysia.

Molecular detection of pathogens in ticks and fleas collected from companion dogs and cats in East and Southeast Asia

“…collected from dogs and cats in EA and SEA. The relatively low occurrence of pathogens herein detected in ticks is consistent with previous surveys conducted in ticks infesting owned dogs in Asia [13,26,[47][48][49]. Conversely, the occurrence of VBPs is higher in ticks collected from stray animals [24].…”

Molecular detection of tick-borne haemopathogens in shelter dogs and Rhipicephalus sanguineus (sensu lato) ticks from Peninsular Malaysia

“…The low detection of TBH in ticks in present works were alligned with other reports where low detection of the pathogens in the tick vector were found compared to the detection in dogs [1,[58][59][60][61][62][63]. Climatic conditions play roles in the detection, activity, and survival of the tick vector [38,[64][65][66].…”

“…The co-infection of TBH has been reported in Malaysian dogs [35,37,38]. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no report of A. platys and B. gibsoni co-infection in the literature in Malaysia, thus indicates that this is the first report of the co-infection in the country.…”

“…However the higher detection in male in current study warrant further investigation or could be due to the population of study were different from other study. Higher detection of TBH were observed from northern region while previous work reported higher detection in the central and eastern regions [35][36]38]. The previous work were mainly focusing on the central region in capital city of Malaysia where other region were understudied.…”

“…In Malaysia, the abundance presence of stray animals and the increase in dog ownership especially in urban areas provide favourable conditions for tick survival and dispersion thus increase the chances of TBh transmission. There is also increase in complaint or cases of TBH among pet owners in the veterinary clinic and most of veterinarian are seeing a number of 3-4 cases per week which is quite alarming (author personal observation and personal communication).There are several reports on detection of TBH for these four important TBH in dogs in some region of the country [16,21,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39].…”