Anaplasma Phagocytophilum infection in cervids and their ticks in Lithuania

• Main Authors: Ražanskė, Irma, Radzijevskaja, Jana, Kibiša, Artūras, Paulauskas, Algimantas
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Cervids; Anaplasma phagocytophilum; Ticks; Biologija / Biology (N010); Alces alces
• Online Access: https://btc.vdu.lt/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/ABSTRACT-BOOK-BTC-2021.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12259/127843

Anaplasma phagocytophilum is a bacterial pathogen, which is a major cause of zoonotic disease – anaplasmosis. The main vectors of A. phagocytophilum are ticks of the Ixodes ricinus complex. The role of wildlife species in the circulation of A. phagocytophilum is yet to be clearly determined, but several species of wild ruminants are thought to be important reservoirs. Epidemiological studies in multiple countries have shown that the prevalence of A. phagocytophilum highly depends on the density of ticks and their potential hosts such as cervids which are one of the main sources of nutrition for Ixodes ticks. In Lithuania, cervids are important game animals but their contribution as reservoirs for A. phagocytophilum remains unknown. The objectives of the study were to investigate the prevalence of A. phagocytophilium infections in cervids and in ticks feeding on cervids and to characterize the A. phagocytophilum strains obtained from animals and ticks based on sequence analysis of msp4 gene. Forty-four cervids representing three species roe deer Capreolus capreolus, red deer Cervus elaphus and moose Alces alces were sampled by hunters during hunting seasons 2010–2013 and 2016–2017 in Lithuania. A total of 187 ticks (178 Ixodes ricinus ir 9 Dermacentor reticulatus) were collected from these animals. Animal blood and spleen samples (collected from 27 roe deer and 2 red deer) and ticks were analysed for the presence of A. phagocytophilum DNA by nested PCR based on msp4 gene. A. phagocytophilum DNA was identified in 10 (37.04%) of the 27 roe deer. The overall prevalence of A. phagocytophilum in I. ricinus and D. reticulatus ticks was 39.3% (70/178) and 22.2 % (2/9) respectively. The sequence analysis of the msp4 gene of A. phagocytophilum revealed ten different sequence types: seven msp4 sequence types were detected in roe deer and five in ticks. [.] Biologijos katedra Miškų ir ekologijos fakultetas Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas