Prevalence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in ticks collected from migratory birds in Danube Delta, Romania

Mărcuţan, ID; Sándor, Attila D.; Mihalca, AD; Gherman, CM; Kalmár, Zsuzsa; D’Amico, Gianluca; Dumitrache, MO; Cozma, V.

doi:10.1186/1756-3305-7-s1-p16

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…parasitizing these animals (Najm et al 2014 ). Also birds can introduce infected ticks (Hasle et al 2011 ; Mărcuţan et al 2014 ). Moreover, the role of dogs in maintenance of A. phagocytophilum has been discussed (Schorn et al 2011b ), although some authors suggests (Stuen et al 2013 ) that dogs host mainly adult ticks and therefore cannot effectively contribute to the life cycle of A. phagocytophilum , as transovarial infection does not seem to occur.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection and quantification of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Babesia spp. in Ixodes ricinus ticks from urban and rural environment, northern Poland, by real-time polymerase chain reaction

et al. 2015

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Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Babesia spp. are emerging tick-borne pathogens which can threaten human health. A duplex real-time PCR and qPCRs with primers and probes targeting 97 and 116 bp fragments of 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA genes, respectively, were used for qualitative and quantitative detection of both pathogens in Ixodes ricinus ticks. Altogether 1875 ticks (1084 adults and 791 nymphs) were collected from rural and urban habitats in northern Poland. Of them, at least 0.9 % were found to be infected with A. phagocytophilum while 2.5 % with Babesia spp. A comparison of the infection rates by the tick stage, the type of area, the collection site, habitats of different tick density and by the month of collection was done. The prevalence of pathogens was significantly lower in nymphs than in adult ticks (p = 0.02) and in rural areas than in urban areas (p = 0.007). Four different 16S rRNA gene variants of A. phagocytophilum were determine, however none of them showed 100 % identity with compared sequences isolated from human patients. The dominant Babesia species was B. venatorum. Results of qPCRs with circular and linearized forms of plasmids used as the standards showed significant difference in the pathogen loads (p = 0.001). The copy numbers of A. phagocytophilum and Babesia spp. estimated from the linear plasmids were 28.7 and 5.1 times lower, respectively, when compared with their circular forms, and were accepted as more reliable. The average number of copies of 16S rRNA gene of A. phagocytophilum in the positive I. ricinus samples were 3.39 × 105 ± 6.09 × 105. The mean copy number of 18S rRNA gene of Babesia spp. was ~2.55 × 105 ± 1.04 × 106. We confirmed the presence of A. phagocytophilum and Babesia spp. in I. ricinus in both rural and urban environments. The determined low infection rates suggests, however, that the risk for local population and tourists to acquire infection is also low. Moreover, we confirmed recent findings that serious overestimation by circular plasmid DNA makes it less suitable as a standard and that the linear standards should be recommended for qPCR.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection and quantification of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Babesia spp. in Ixodes ricinus ticks from urban and rural environment, northern Poland, by real-time polymerase chain reaction

et al. 2015

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“…bovis and B. bigemina, which have a similar geographical distribution and cause anemia in cattle [4]. Besides transmission by ticks, these hemoprotozoa and A. marginale can also be transmitted mechanically by biting flies [5], needles [6], ear-tagging, castration and dehorning equipment [7,8], and parasites of migratory wild birds [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seroprevalence and Molecular Detection of Bovine Anaplasmosis in Egypt

et al. 2020

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Bovine anaplasmosis is a tick-borne disease with zoonotic potential, caused by the obligate intracellular bacterium Anaplasma marginale. The disease is distributed worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions. The economic losses from anaplasmosis in animals is of significant importance because it causes severe morbidity and mortality in cattle. Recovered animals may become persistent carriers. Epidemiological information on the actual status of bovine anaplasmosis in Egypt is scarce. Thus, this study aimed to determine anti-Anaplasma antibody and DNA in serum samples using ELISA and PCR, respectively. In total, 758 bovine sera were collected from cattle farms located in 24 Egyptian governorates in 2015 to 2016. Sera were analyzed with the commercially available ‘Anaplasma antibody competitive ELISA v2’ kit and ‘AmpliTest Anaplasma/Ehrlichia spp. real time TaqMan TM PCR. Anaplasma spp. antibodies were detected in 140 (18.5%) (CI: 15.8–21.4%) of the investigated sera by ELISA, and Anaplasma/Ehrlichia-DNA was detected in 40 (5.3%) (CI: 3.8–7.1%) of the positive sera by real time PCR. Co-detection of both Anaplasma spp. and Coxiella burnetii-specific antibodies was proven in 30 (4%) of the investigated sera. The results of this work confirm the significant prevalence of bovine anaplasmosis in Egypt. Raising awareness in decision makers of the public health, veterinarians and animal owners is required to reduce the spread of infection.

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“…Birds, especially passerine migratory species, could be involved in carriage of microbial pathogens as biological reservoirs, when microorganisms multiply in their body, mechanical carriers, and hosts of epidemiologically important ixodid ticks (Hubálek 2004 ; Foti et al 2011 ; Falchi et al 2012 ). In Europe, Ixodes ricinus ticks detached from their avian hosts were found to harbor tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) (Waldenström et al 2007 ; Kazarina et al 2015 ), different genospecies of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Comstedt et al 2006 ; Poupon et al 2006 ; Michalik et al 2008 ; Heylen et al 2012 ), Anaplasma phagocytophilum (Paulauskas et al 2009 ; Mǎrcuţan et al 2014 ), spotted fever group Rickettsia spp. (Elfving et al 2010 ), Babesia spp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rickettsia helvetica and R. monacensis infections in immature Ixodes ricinus ticks derived from sylvatic passerine birds in west-central Poland

et al. 2016

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The aim of this study was to assess the importance of forest passerine birds in spreading ixodid ticks infected with rickettsiae of spotted fever group (SFG) in sylvatic habitats in western Poland. In total, 834 immature Ixodes ricinus ticks were found on 64 birds of 11 species which were captured during the tick-questing season between May and September of 2006. Ground-foraging passerines hosted most of the ticks compared with arboreal species, and therefore, only the former group was included into a detailed analysis. Significant predominance of larvae over nymphs was observed (581 vs. 253, respectively). Blackbirds and song thrushes hosted 82 % (n = 681) of the ticks collected from all infested passerines. The overall prevalence range of SF rickettsiae (including Rickettsia helvetica and Rickettsia monacensis) in bird-derived ticks was 10.5–26.9 %, exceeding that in questing ticks, and in ticks feeding on rodents and deer reported earlier from the same study area. This high prevalence of infection in immature I. ricinus ticks feeding on passerine birds strongly implies that they are involved in the enzootic maintenance of spotted fever group rickettsiae in the tick vector populations occurring in sylvatic habitats.

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Prevalence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in ticks collected from migratory birds in Danube Delta, Romania

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Detection and quantification of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Babesia spp. in Ixodes ricinus ticks from urban and rural environment, northern Poland, by real-time polymerase chain reaction

Detection and quantification of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Babesia spp. in Ixodes ricinus ticks from urban and rural environment, northern Poland, by real-time polymerase chain reaction

Seroprevalence and Molecular Detection of Bovine Anaplasmosis in Egypt

Rickettsia helvetica and R. monacensis infections in immature Ixodes ricinus ticks derived from sylvatic passerine birds in west-central Poland

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