Molecular evidence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection in wild cervids and feeding Ixodes ricinus ticks from west-central Poland

Abstract

The detection of circulating galactomannan (GM) in serum samples is an important step in the diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis (IA). The assay has been mainly explored in neutropenic patients, and is now used to monitor patients at high risk for IA. However, the performance of the assay varies greatly among studies. The objective of this study was to explore the impact of the neutrophil count on the GM serum index at the time of IA diagnosis. Ninety-nine episodes of proven or probable, microbiologically documented IA in 91 patients with haematological malignancies were studied retrospectively. Three groups were identified: groups 1-3, with <100 polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN)/mm(3) (n = 18), between 100 and 500 PMN/mm(3) (n = 21), or >500 PMN/mm(3) (n = 60), respectively. The mean GM index was significantly higher in group 1 than in the other groups (p <0.05). This finding did not change after stratifying the analysis with regard to the use of antibiotics likely to give false-positive GM results or with regard to treatment effective against fungi before the diagnosis of IA. This finding could be considered in the routine use of the GM antigenaemia test in non-neutropenic patients; a negative result or a low GM index should not eliminate the diagnosis of IA. This limitation calls for other microbiological tests, including analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, to establish a definitive diagnosis of IA.

Diverse tick-borne microorganisms identified in free-living ungulates in Slovakia

“…The infection rates of 100% in red deer, 95.4% in fallow deer, and 92.9% in roe deer estimated from our study are higher than values previously reported from Slovakia: red deer 17.5–53.1% [24, 57, 102]; fallow deer 66.7% [24], and roe deer 50–77% [24, 57, 102, 103]. The infection rates determined in this study are in the upper range of those confirmed by PCR in cervids from other countries of mainland Europe, where the values in red deer ranged between 1.5–86% [89, 104–114], in fallow deer between 1.5–72.5% [42, 105, 106, 108, 110, 112, 115, 116] and in roe deer between 9.6–98.9% [38, 42, 89, 105–113, 117–120]. The 88.9% infection rate in mouflon is higher than the values previously reported from Slovakia [57] and other European countries, where the prevalences ranged from 4% to 74.4% [42, 106, 110, 111].…”

“…In another study from Italy, a prevalence of 11% and 5.4% was detected for nymphs/adults and larvae, respectively [129]. The prevalence in adult ticks feeding on cervids in Italy (7.3%) [116] and Poland (22.7%) [108] was lower than in our study, whereas it was comparable with the 86.1% prevalence reported from a site in Germany, where the infection rate of roe deer was as high as 98.7% [38]. Anaplasma phagocytophilum was also detected in engorged H. concinna larvae and nymphs feeding on infected roe deer and fallow deer.…”

“Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis,” Anaplasma phagocytophilum, and Lyme Disease Spirochetes in Questing European Vector Ticks and in Feeding Ticks Removed from People

“…Only ticks removed from roe deer were significantly more often infected with this pathogen (17) than the average questing ticks analyzed in the remaining eight studies. This observation is not surprising, since deer, and possibly other ruminants, may serve as reservoir hosts for A. phagocytophilum (11). On average, 20% of the ticks are infected by spirochetes among the six studies that examined the ticks also for the presence of these pathogens, but as many as two-thirds (67.3%) of I. persulcatus ticks may be infected (1).…”

Detection and quantification of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Babesia spp. in Ixodes ricinus ticks from urban and rural environment, northern Poland, by real-time polymerase chain reaction

“…In Poland, roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus ) and red deer ( Cervus elaphus ) seem to be greatly involved in the wild cycle of B. venatorum, B. divergens and A. phagocytophilum (Adamska and Skotarczak 2007 , Michalik et al 2009 , Stańczak and Michalik, unpublished). We suppose that cervids play an important role in the maintenance of these microorganisms in the TCLP and in the KLP forests as they freely migrate from one forest complex to another one.…”