C Silaghi

EG Granquist

S Stuen

Parasites & Vectors

PubMed

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ORAL PRESENTATION Open Access
Anaplasma phagocytophilum - pathogen with a
zoonotic potential
S Stuen1*, EG Granquist2, C Silaghi3
From The 1st Conference on Neglected Vectors and Vector-Borne Diseases (EurNegVec): with Management
Committee and Working Group Meetings of the COST Action TD1303
Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 8-11 April 2014
Anaplasma phagocytophilum has for decades been known
to cause the disease tick-borne fever (TBF) in domestic
ruminants in Ixodes ricinus-infested areas in northern
Europe. Later studies have shown that the infection is
widespread on the continent. A. phagocytophilum is able
to persist between seasons of tick activity in several
mammalian species and movement of hosts and infected
ticks on migrating animals or birds may spread the
bacterium. A. phagocytophilum encompasses multiple
genetic strains, a broad host range and has pathogenic
potential in several other mammalian species, including
humans. Identification and stratification into phyloge-
netic subfamilies has been based on cell culturing,
experimental infections, PCR and sequencing techni-
ques. The clinical symptoms vary from subclinical to
fatal conditions, and considerable underreporting of
clinical incidents is suspected in both human and veter-
inary medicine. In human, the most common clinical
manifestations are flu-like symptoms two to three weeks
after tick attachment. In Europe, human granulocytic
anaplasmosis (HGA) was first described in 1997. Since
then only few cases of HGA have been reported. The
reason for the suspected underreporting may be lack of
awareness among physicians, unspecific clinical signs,
lack of available adequate hosts and non-virulent strains
of A. phagocytophilum involved. Phylogenetic studies
indicate that stains isolated from humans, dogs and
horses from Europe belongs to the same clonal complex,
while similar studies on isolates from wild and domestic
ruminants indicate that they are unlikely to harbour
variants of A. phagocytophilum that are infectious to
humans. In contrast, wild boar and hedgehogs are
suspected to be competent reservoir hosts for human var-
iants. However, the natural transmission cycles of various
A. phagocytophilum strains, the involvement of their
respective hosts and vectors, and in particular their zoono-
tic potential, have to be unravelled. Updated information
concerning the zoonotic potential of A. phagocytophilum
will be presented.
Authors’ details
1Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences, Norwegian University of
Life Sciences Sandnes, Norway. 2Department of Production Animal Clinical
Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo, Norway. 3Department
of Veterinärwissenschaftliches,Comparative Tropical Medicine and
Parasitology, Ludwig-Maximillians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Published: 1 April 2014
doi:10.1186/1756-3305-7-S1-O24
Cite this article as: Stuen et al.: Anaplasma phagocytophilum - pathogen
with a zoonotic potential. Parasites & Vectors 2014 7(Suppl 1):O24.
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* Correspondence: snorre.stuen@nmbu.no
1Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences, Norwegian University of
Life Sciences Sandnes, Norway
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Stuen et al. Parasites & Vectors 2014, 7(Suppl 1):O24
http://www.parasitesandvectors.com/content/7/S1/O24
© 2014 Stuen et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://
creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.


Anaplasma phagocytophilum - pathogen with a zoonotic potential

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Anaplasma phagocytophilum - pathogen with a zoonotic potential

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