Prevalence of Anaplasma, Bartonella and Borrelia Species in Haemaphysalis longicornis collected from goats in North Korea

Abstract

North Korea is located on the northern part of the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. While tick-borne pathogens of medical and veterinary importance have been reported from China and South Korea, they have not been reported from North Korea. To screen for zoonotic tick-borne pathogens in North Korea, ticks were collected from domestic goats. A total of 292 (27 nymph, 26 male, 239 female) Haemaphysalis (H.) longicornis were collected and assayed individually for selected tick-borne pathogens. A total of 77 (26.4%) were positive for Anaplasma bovis, followed by Bartonella (B.) grahamii (15, 5.1%), Anaplasma phagocytophilum (12, 4.1%), Bartonella henselae (10, 3.4%), and Borrelia spp. (3, 1.0%) based on 16S ribosomal RNA and ITS species-specific nested polymerase chain reaction. Using the groEL-based nested PCR, a total of 6 and 1 H. longicornis were positive for B. grahamii and B. henselae, respectively. All products were sequenced and demonstrated 100% identity and homology with previously reported sequences from other countries in GenBank. This is the first report of the detection of tick-borne pathogens in the North Korea and suggests that farm animals may act as reservoirs for zoonotic tick-borne pathogens.

Keywords: Anaplasma; Bartonella; Borrelia; Haemaphysalis longicornis; North Korea.

Fig. 1. Map of Rason (Rajin-Sunbong) special economic zone (black dotted circle) in North Korea. Ticks were collected from mountain-pastured goats at farms at which they were housed along the coast in Rajin.

Fig. 2. Phylogenetic relationships for Anaplsama bovis detected from ticks in North Korea (bold letters) and Anaplasma and Ehrlichia species from other countries based on partial nucleotide sequences of the 16S rRNA gene fragment (547 bp). The neighbor-joining method was used to construct the phylogenetic tree. The numbers at the nodes are the proportions of 1,000 bootstrap iterations that support the topology shown. ROK, Republic of Korea; DPRK, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Fig. 3. Phylogenetic relationships for Anaplsama phagocytophilum (bold letter) detected from ticks in North Korea (bold letters) and related Anaplasma and Ehrlichia species from other countries based on partial nucleotide sequences of the 16S rRNA gene fragment (925 bp). The neighbor-joining method was used to construct the phylogenetic tree. The numbers at the nodes are the proportions of 1,000 bootstrap iterations that support the topology shown.

Fig. 4. Phylogenetic relationships among Bartonella grahamii and Bartonella henselae detected from ticks in North Korea (bold letters) and related Bartonella species from other countries based on partial nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene fragment. The neighbor-joining method was used to construct the phylogenetic tree. The numbers at the nodes are the proportion of 1,000 bootstrap iterations that support the topology shown.

Fig. 5. Phylogenetic relationships for Bartonella grahamii and Bartonella henselae detected from ticks in North Korea (bold letters) and Bartonella species from other countries based on partial protein sequences of the 409 amino acid groEL gene fragment. The neighbor-joining method was used to construct the phylogenetic tree. The numbers at the nodes are the proportion of 1,000 bootstrap iterations that support the topology shown.

Fig. 6. Phylogenetic relationships among Borrelia spp. detected from ticks in North Korea (bold letters) and related Borrelia spp. from other countries based on partial nucleotide sequences of the 16S rRNA gene fragment (705 bp). The neighbor-joining method was used to construct the phylogenetic tree. The numbers at the nodes are the proportion of 1,000 bootstrap iterations that support the topology shown.