The molecular detection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Rickettsia spp. in cat and dog fleas collected from companion animals

Abstract

Companion animals can be infested by various species of parasitic insects. Cat flea Ctenocephalides felis (C. felis felis) (Bouché, 1835) and dog flea Ctenocephalides canis (Curtis, 1826) belong to multihost external parasites of mammals, which most frequently occur on domestic cats Felis catus Linnaeus and dogs Canis familiaris Linnaeus. The main aim of this study was to investigate the presence of pathogens, such as Anaplasma phagocytophilum (syn. Ehrlichia phagocytophila) and Rickettsia spp., in adult C. felis and C. canis fleas. Flea sampling has been realised from January 2013 to April 2017 in veterinary clinics, animal shelters and pet grooming salons. Fleas were collected from domestic cats and dogs, directly from the pet skin or hair. Then, the DNA was isolated from a single flea by using the alkaline hydrolysis and samples were screened for the presence of pathogens using PCR method. Anaplasma phagocytophilum has occurred in 29% of examined C. felis and 16% of C. canis individuals. In turn, the prevalence of Rickettsia spp. in cat fleas population was only 3%, and the dog fleas 7%. The present study showed the presence of pathogenic agents in cat and dog fleas, which indicates the potential role of these insects in circulation of A. phagocytophilum and Rickettsia spp. in the natural habitat. Furthermore, exposition to these flea species, whose hosts are domestic cats and dogs, can pose a potential risk of infection for humans.

Pentaplex real‐time PCR for differential detection of Yersinia pestis and Y. pseudotuberculosis and application for testing fleas collected during plague epizootics

“…mayonii ), Trypanosoma cruzi , and Leptospira interrogans for specificity testing (Table 3). The reason we included these species is that the transmission route of these bacteria is similar to the Yersinia species, either by fleas or other blood‐feeding vectors (Bai et al, 2017; Brook et al, 2015; Livengood, Hutchinson, Thirumalapura, & Tewari, 2020; Pawelczyk, Asman, & Solarz, 2019) or by consumption of contaminated water (Casanovas‐Massana, Pedra, Wunder, Begon, & Ko, 2018). All DNA from these non‐ Yesinia species was obtained from CDC Bacterial Diseases Branch.…”

The Discovery of Zoonotic Protozoans in Fleas Parasitizing on Pets as a Potential Infection Threat

“…According to our knowledge, epidemiological studies about flea prevalence on pets have been limited in Poland [7,8]. The occurrence of fleas in populations of domestic animals and the prevalence of zoonotic species in examined specimens are occasionally described in foreign reports [9][10][11].…”

Rickettsiales in the WHO European Region: an update from a One Health perspective

“…Bacteria of the order Rickettsiales were discovered infecting 12 species belonging to seven genera of fleas. The following 14 bacterial species were identified : Anaplasma phagocytophilum [ 22 ] , A. marginale [ 23 ] , A. ovis [ 23 ] , Erlichia canis [ 23 ] , Rickettsia felis [ 24 ] , R. helvetica [ 25 ] , R. raoultii [ 26 ] , R. hoogstraalii [ 27 ] , R. australis [ 27 ] , R. asembonensis [ 28 ] , R. typhi [ 24 ] and three species closely related with R. felis [ 29 ] , R. senegalensis [ 30 ] and Candidatus R. kotlanii [ 30 ]. The host from which the fleas were collected were often pets [ 31 ]; less commonly, fleas infected with rickettsiae were collected from hedgehogs [ 28 ], rodents [ 25 ] and foxes [ 30 ].…”