Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Aug 7;10(1):377.
doi: 10.1186/s13071-017-2316-0.

Detecting and characterizing mixed infections with genetic variants of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) by developing an ankA cluster-specific nested PCR

Maggy Jouglin  1   2 , Sophie Chagneau  1   2 , Frédéric Faille  1   2 , Hélène Verheyden  3 , Suzanne Bastian  1   2 , Laurence Malandrin  4   5
Affiliations

Detecting and characterizing mixed infections with genetic variants of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) by developing an ankA cluster-specific nested PCR

Maggy Jouglin et al. Parasit Vectors. .

Abstract

Background: Anaplasma phagocytophilum is a tick-transmitted Gram-negative obligate intracellular bacterium able to infect a wide variety of wild and domestic animals worldwide. Based on the genetic diversity observed with different molecular markers, several host-specific lineages have been identified. Roe deer is one of the most important reservoirs of this bacterium and hosts different genetic groups sometimes found on domestic animals. We therefore developed an ankA cluster-specific nested PCR (nPCR) to evaluate the prevalence of the three different ankA genetic groups described in roe deer (clusters II, III and IV) at three locations in France and the level of co-infections.

Results: The specificity of the three nPCRs was assessed by partially sequencing 35 amplicons of ankA genes obtained from the different nested PCRs. All three genetic lineages were detected in roe deer from all three geographical locations. Of the infected deer population, 60.7% were co-infected by two or three different genetic variants. Co-infections varied from 42.9 to 70.6% of the infected population depending on the local infection prevalences (from 33.3 to 73.9%). All types of mixed infections occurred, suggesting the absence of a strict variant exclusion by another variant.

Conclusions: Mixed infections by two or three genetic variants of A. phagocytopilum are a common feature in roe deer. Genetic variants (cluster IV) also found in domestic ruminants (cattle and sheep) were present in all the roe deer populations analyzed, suggesting a shared epidemiological cycle.

Keywords: Anaplasma phagocytophilum; Capreolus capreolus; Co-infection; France; Nested polymerase chain reaction; Reservoir; Tick-borne diseases; ankA variant.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Prevalences of mono- and mixed-infections by A. phagocytophilum ankA variants in roe deer. a Global analysis of the three geographical locations in France. b Analysis of each location separately. In each case, the first value corresponds to the infection prevalences, the second value (bold and underlined) to the percentage of mixed infections in the population of infected roe deer
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Dumler JS, Barbet AF, Bekker CP, Dasch GA, Palmer GH, Ray SC, et al. Reorganization of genera in the families Rickettsiaceae and Anaplasmataceae in the order Rickettsiales: unification of some species of Ehrlichia with Anaplasma, Cowdria with Ehrlichia and Ehrlichia with Neorickettsia, descriptions of six new species combinations and designation of Ehrlichia equi and ‘HGE agent’ as subjective synonyms of Ehrlichia phagocytophila. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 2001;51:2145–2165. doi: 10.1099/00207713-51-6-2145. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Stuen S, Granquist EG, Silaghi C. Anaplasma phagocytophilum - a widespread multi-host pathogen with highly adaptive strategies. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2013;3:31. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2013.00031. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. de la Fuente J, Estrada-Peña A, Cabezas-Cruz A, Kocan KM. Anaplasma phagocytophilum uses common strategies for infection of ticks and vertebrate hosts. Trends Microbiol. 2016;24(3):173–180. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2015.12.001. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rar V, Golovljova I. Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, and “Candidatus Neoehrlichia” bacteria: pathogenicity, biodiversity, and molecular genetic characteristics, a review. Infect Genet Evol. 2011;11(8):1842–61. - PubMed
    1. Dugat T, Lagrée AC, Maillard R, Boulouis HJ, Haddad N. Opening the black box of Anaplasma phagocytophilum diversity: current situation and future perspectives. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2015;5:61. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2015.00061. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources