Transmission of Anaplasma phagocytophilum to Ixodes ricinus ticks from sheep in the acute and post-acute phases of infection.

ABSTRACT: A total of 60 sheep were exposed to Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection on an enclosed area of Ixodes ricinus-infested pasture in North Wales, United Kingdom, and rapidly acquired acute A. phagocytophilum infections detectable by PCR and blood smear examination. Of the ticks that had engorged in the previous instar on infected sheep, 52% of adult ticks and 28% of nymphs were PCR positive; a significant, 10-fold increase in prevalence compared to that of ticks that engorged on sheep preinfection was observed (P = 0.015). The likelihood that ticks were PCR positive, after feeding on the sheep and molting to the next instar, increased marginally with increasing numbers of infected neutrophils per milliliter of blood of their sheep host (P = 0.068) and increased significantly when they were co

SUBMITTER: Ogden NH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC152096 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature