Molecular detection of Anaplasma platys in Pshdar Kurdish shepherd dogs of Sulaymaniyah Province, Iraq

Vet World Vol.17 December-2024 Article - 10

Research Article

Veterinary World, 17(12): 2797-2801

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2024.2797-2801

Eman D. Arif¹, Karwan M. Hama Khan², Israa H. Abd Al-Sada³, and Yousif M. S. Al-Barzinji⁴

1. Department of Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sulaimani, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.
2. Department of Animal Science, College of Agricultural Engineering Science, University of Sulaimani, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.
3. Department of Anatomy and Histopathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sulaimani, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.
4. Department of Animal Resources, College of Agricultural Engineering Science, Salahaddin University-Erbil, Iraq.

Background and Aim: Anaplasma platys is a dog pathogen that causes anaplasmosis in various hosts, including humans. It is a rickettsial pathogen that causes cyclic thrombocytopenia in primary canine recipients and is spread by the brown dog tick Rhipicephalus sanguineus. This study aimed to map the genetic sequences of Anaplasma spp. isolates comparable with those of different global locations and determine the infection status of Pshdar Kurdish shepherd dogs from three regions in Sulaymaniyah province who did not exhibit clinical indications for Anaplasma.

Materials and Methods: A total of 75 dog blood samples were collected from the center of the Sulaymaniyah, Dukan, and Ranya districts in the Sulaymaniyah province and subjected to polymerase chain reaction to determine the 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene of A. platys.

Results: Only two dogs (2.7%) were positive for A. platys. The 16S rRNA gene of A. platys was sequenced and registered in the National Center for Biotechnology Information GenBank with accession number OR467538. With four nucleotide changes, the sequence exhibited 99.72% similarity to strains identified as human infections and those found in recognized tick vectors.

Conclusion: We conclude that the blood of Pshdar Kurdish shepherd dogs in the Sulaymaniyah region of Iraq contains a small number of A. platys. Moreover, the phylogenetic tree of the isolated species, A. platys, was significantly similar to other strains of A. platys found worldwide. In the Kurdistan region of Iraq, this study represents the first molecular detection of the 16S rRNA gene of A. platys.

Keywords: 16S ribosomal RNA gene, Anaplasma platys, blood, dogs, polymerase chain reaction.

How to cite this article: Arif ED, Khan KMH, Al-Sada IHA, and Al-Barzinji YMS (2024) Molecular detection of Anaplasma platys in Pshdar Kurdish shepherd dogs of Sulaymaniyah Province, Iraq, Veterinary World, 17(12): 2797-2801.

Received: 2024-09-17 Accepted: 2024-11-08 Published online: 2024-12-14

Corresponding author: Eman D. Arif E-mail: eman.aref@univsul.edu.iq

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.2797-2801

Copyright: Arif, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. 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.