Although diverse tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) are endemic to East Africa, with recognized impact on human and livestock health, their diversity and specific interactions with tick and vertebrate host species remain poorly understood in the region. In particular, the role of reptiles in TBP epidemiology remains unknown, despite having been implicated with TBPs of livestock among exported tortoise...

To the Editor: Anaplasmosis is a disease caused by bacteria of the genus Anaplasma. A. marginale, A. centrale, A. phagocytophilum, A. ovis, A. bovis, and A. platys are obligate intracellular bacteria that infect vertebrate and invertebrate host cells. A. ovis, which is transmitted primarily by Rhipicepha-lus bursa ticks, is an intraerythrocytic rickettsial pathogen of sheep, goats, and wild rum...

SNAP® 4Dx® Plus (IDEXX Laboratories, Westbrook, ME) is a commercially available in-office test kit for the simultaneous detection of Dirofilaria immitis antigen and antibodies to Anaplasma phagocytophilum, A. platys, Borrelia burgdorferi, Ehrlichia canis, and E. ewingii in blood, plasma, or serum of dogs. AccuPlexTM4 test (ANTECH Diagnostics®, Irvine, CA) is a recently launched reference labora...

There are no comprehensive studies on the performance of commonly used point-of-care diagnostic enzyme immunoassay for common arthropod-borne canine pathogens. A comparative evaluation of an immunochromatographic test for these infections with a comprehensive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test panel was performed on 100 pet dogs and 100 stray dogs without obvious clinical symptoms. Of the 162...

Emerging mobile applications rely upon knowing a user’s location. A (geospatial) position is a low-level conception of location. A place is a high-level, user-centric conception of location that corresponds to a well-delineated set of positions. Place recognition deals with how to identify a place. Traditional place-recognition approaches (1) presuppose manual tuning of place parameters; (2) li...

As part of a larger study to investigate tick-borne infections in dogs from Thailand and Venezuela, documentation of coinfection with three Ehrlichia species in two dogs, one from each country, became the focus of the present study. Although neither dog had clinical signs attributable to ehrlichiosis, both dogs were anemic and neutropenic and the Thai dog was thrombocytopenic. Genus- and specie...

The present study was conducted as the first molecular detection of Anaplasma species in tick samples based on the sequencing of major surface proteins 4 (msp4) gene fragments in different parts of Iran. A total of 130 tick specimens were collected from Hormozgan, Lorestan, and Guilan, Iran, within 2015 to 2017. Hyalomma asiaticum, Hyalomma dromedarii</em...