TY - JOUR
AU - Massung, Robert
AU - Mauel, Michael
AU - Owens, Jessica
AU - Allan, Nancy
AU - Courtney, Joshua
AU - Stafford, Kirby
AU - Mather, Thomas
T1 - Genetic Variants of Ehrlichia phagocytophila, Rhode Island and Connecticut
T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal
PY - 2002
VL - 8
IS - 5
SP - 467
SN - 1080-6059
AB - Primers were used to amplify a 561-bp region of the 16S rRNA gene of Ehrlichia phagocytophila from Ixodes scapularis ticks and small mammals collected in Rhode Island and Connecticut. DNA sequences for all 50 E. phagocytophila-positive samples collected from 1996 through 1998 in southwestern Connecticut were identical to the sequence reported for E. phagocytophila DNA from confirmed human cases. In contrast, the sequences from 92 of 123 E. phagocytophila-positive Rhode Island samples collected from 1996 through 1999 included several variants differing by 1-2 nucleotides from that in the agent infecting humans. While 11.9% of 67 E. phagocytophila-positive ticks collected during 1997 in Rhode Island harbored ehrlichiae with sequences identical to that of the human agent, 79.1% had a variant sequence not previously described. The low incidence of human ehrlichiosis in Rhode Island may in part result from interference by these variant ehrlichiae with maintenance and transmission of the true agent of human disease.
KW - Ehrlichia phagocytophila
KW - ehrlichiosis
KW - rickettsia
KW - Anaplasma phagocytophila
KW - Peru
KW - United States
KW - Connecticut
KW - Rhode Island
DO - 10.3201/eid0805.010251
UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/8/5/01-0251_article
ER - End of Reference