Molecular detection and phylogenetic analysis of Anaplasma bovis from Haemaphysalis longicornis feeding on grazing cattle in Korea

Ticks are vectors of various pathogens that affect humans and animals throughout the world. Anaplasma bovis is one of the most important tick-borne pathogens that cause cattle diseases but there is still very little information available about this agent in Korea. In the present study, 535 Haemaphysalis longicornis tick pools were analyzed from grazing cattle in five Korean provinces. A. bovis was detected in 50 (9.3%) of 535 tick pools using 16S rRNA-based PCR. A. bovis infections were detected for the first time in ticks feeding on cattle in Chungbuk, Geongbuk, and Jeonbuk provinces in Korea. The 50 positive PCR products were sequenced successfully and compared with sequences in GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis of the Korean isolates classified them into four genotypes with nucleotide sequence identities of 99.4-100%. Two of the four genotypes had high similarity (99.8-100%) with known sequences. The other two genotypes have never been identified.