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
. 2022 Mar;69(2):143-148.
doi: 10.1111/zph.12901. Epub 2021 Dec 27.

First detection of human pathogenic variant of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in field-collected Haemaphysalis longicornis, Pennsylvania, USA

Keith J Price  1 , Bryan N Ayres  2 , Sarah E Maes  3 , Bryn J Witmier  1 , Holly A Chapman  1 , Brooke L Coder  1 , Christian N Boyer  1 , Rebecca J Eisen  3 , William L Nicholson  2
Affiliations

First detection of human pathogenic variant of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in field-collected Haemaphysalis longicornis, Pennsylvania, USA

Keith J Price et al. Zoonoses Public Health. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

The Asian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis, an invasive species associated with human pathogens, has spread rapidly across the eastern USA. Questing H. longicornis ticks recovered from active surveillance conducted from 1 May to 6 September, 2019 throughout Pennsylvania were tested for rickettsial pathogens. Of 265 ticks tested by PCR for pathogens, 4 (1.5%) were positive for Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene confirmed two positives as A. phagocytophilum-human agent variant. This is the first reported detection of A. phagocytophilum-human pathogenic strain DNA in exotic H. longicornis collected in the USA.

Keywords: Anaplasma phagocytophilum; introduced species; tick-borne diseases; ticks.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Barbour, A. G. (2017). Infection resistance and tolerance in Peromyscus spp., natural reservoirs of microbes that are virulent for humans. In Seminars in cell & developmental biology (pp. 115-122, vol. 61). Academic Press.
    1. Beard, C. B., Occi, J., Bonilla, D. L., Egizi, A. M., Fonseca, D. M., Mertins, J. W., & Halperin, W. (2018). Multistate infestation with the exotic disease-vector tick Haemaphysalis longicornis-United States, August 2017-September 2018. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(47), 1310.
    1. Courtney, J. W., Dryden, R. L., Montgomery, J., Schneider, B. S., Smith, G., & Massung, R. F. (2003). Molecular characterization of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi in Ixodes scapularis ticks from Pennsylvania. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 41(4), 1569-1573.
    1. Courtney, J. W., Kostelnik, L. M., Zeidner, N. S., & Massung, R. F. (2004). Multiplex real-time PCR for detection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 42(7), 3164.
    1. Denison, A. M., Amin, B. D., Nicholson, W. L., & Paddock, C. D. (2014). Detection of Rickettsia rickettsii, Rickettsia parkeri, and Rickettsia akari in skin biopsy specimens using a multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction assay. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 59(5), 635-642. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciu358

Publication types

Substances

LinkOut - more resources