Reservoir competence of vertebrate hosts for Anaplasma phagocytophilum

Abstract

Fourteen vertebrate species (10 mammals and 4 birds) were assessed for their ability to transmit Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the bacterium that causes human granulocytic anaplasmosis, to uninfected feeding ixodid ticks. Small mammals were most likely to infect ticks but all species assessed were capable of transmitting the bacterium, in contrast to previous findings.

Figure 1

Mean reservoir competence of 14 host species (10 mammals and 4 birds) for Anaplasma phagocytophilum, southeastern New York, USA, 2008–2010. Error bars indicate SE. Reservoir competence is defined as the mean percentage of ticks infected by any individual host of a given species. Host species with <10 individual hosts sampled are indicated by an asterisk. See Table 1 for sample sizes. Single-letter abbreviations for genera along the left indicate Blarina, Didelphis, Glaucomys, Mephitis, Peromyscus, Procyon, Sciurus, Sorex, Tamias, Tamiasciurus, Catharus, Dumetella, Hylocichla, and Turdus, respectively.

Figure 2

Mean reservoir competence of 14 host species (10 mammals and 4 birds) for Anaplasma phagocytophilum, southeastern New York, USA, 2008–2010. Error bars indicate SE. Reservoir competence is defined as the mean percentage of ticks infected by any individual host of a given species. For inclusion, sample sizes for a species had to be >4 in >2 years. No species showed significant variation in reservoir competence across years (p>0.10, by 2-way analysis of variance or Kruskal-Wallis test as appropriate, for all species tested). Single-letter abbreviations for genera along the left indicate Blarina, Didelphis, Peromyscus, Procyon, Sciurus, Tamias, Catharus, and Turdus, respectively.