Volume 20, Number 6—June 2014
Letter
Genetic and Ecologic Variability among Anaplasma phagocytophilum Strains, Northern Italy
Table
Prevalence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in questing and feeding Ixodes ticks from Valle dei Laghi, northern Italy*
Sample source | Tick host group/no. sampled per group | No. ticks per species |
No. ticks per stage (A/N/L)† | No. ticks screened | No. A. phagocytophilum-infected ticks (% positive I. ricinus/% positive total ticks)‡ | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
I. ricinus | I. hexagonus | I. trianguliceps | I. turdus | |||||
Questing ticks |
821 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
155/666/0 |
821 |
15 (1.8/1.8) |
|
Feeding ticks | Humans/111 | 115 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32/83/0 | 115 | 5 (4.3/4.3) |
Dogs/17 | 11 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 5/23/2 | 30 | 1 (9.1/3.3) | |
Wild ungulates/11 | 49 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16/28/3 | 49 | 7 (14.3/14.3) | |
Sheep/13 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13/0/0 | 13 | 1 (7.7/7.7) | |
Wild rodents/44 | 38 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 4/29/16 | 49 | 3 (7.9/6.1) | |
Wild birds/28 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0/27/1 | 28 | 3 (11.5/10.7) |
*Feeding ticks were removed from humans, domestic dogs (Canis familiaris), wild ungulates (roe deer Capreolus capreolus, red deer Cervus elaphus), sheep (Ovis aries), wild rodents (yellow-necked mouse Apodemus flavicollis, harvest mouse Moscardinus avellanarius, bank vole Myodes glareolus), and wild birds (robin Erithacus rubecula, blackbird Turdus merula, thrush Turdus philomelos, great tit Parus major, nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos, and jay Garrulus glandarius).
†A, adult; N, nymph; L, larva.
‡Only I. ricinus ticks were found to be A. phagocytophilum–infected.