Endemic tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) has not been documented in Nigeria, yet clinically compatible cases have been described, and soft tick species are endemic in surrounding countries. Consequently, our aim was to investigate if TBRF-associated
Borrelia
is present in Nigeria.
“CandidatusNeoehrlichia mikurensis” is the tick-borne agent of neoehrlichiosis, an infectious disease that primarily affects immunocompromised patients. So far, the genetic variability of “Ca. Neoehrlichia” has been studied only by comparing 16S rRNA genes andgroELoperon sequences. We describe the development and use of a multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) protocol to characterize the genetic diversity of clinical “Ca. Neoehrlichia” strains in Europe and their relatedness to other species within theAnaplasmataceaefamily. Six genes were selected:ftsZ,clpB,gatB,lipA,groEL, and 16S rRNA. Each MLSA locus was amplified by real-time PCR, and the PCR products were sequenced. Phylogenetic trees of MLSA locus relatedness were constructed from aligned sequences. Blood samples from 12 patients with confirmed “Ca. Neoehrlichia” infection from Sweden (n= 9), the Czech Republic (n= 2), and Germany (n= 1) were analyzed with the MLSA protocol. Three of the Swedish strains exhibited identicallipAsequences, while thelipAsequences of the strains from the other nine patients were identical to each other. One of the Czech strains had one differing nucleotide in theclpBsequence from the sequences of the other 11 strains. All 12 strains had identical sequences for the genes 16S rRNA,ftsZ,gatB, andgroEL. According to the MLSA, among theAnaplasmataceae, “Ca. Neoehrlichia” is most closely related toEhrlichia ruminantium, less so toAnaplasma phagocytophilum, and least toWolbachiaendosymbionts. To conclude, three sequence types of infectious “Ca. Neoehrlichia” were identified: one in the west of Sweden, one in the Czech Republic, and one spread throughout Europe.
ABSTRACT
A recently described clinical isolate, “
Candidatus
Bartonella ancashi,” was obtained from a blood sample of a patient presenting with verruga peruana in the Ancash region of Peru. This sample and a second isolate obtained 60 days later from the same patient were molecularly typed using multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and multispacer sequence typing (MST). The isolates were 100% indistinguishable from each other but phylogenetically distant from
Bartonella bacilliformis
and considerably divergent from other known
Bartonella
species, confirming their novelty.
ABSTRACT
“
Candidatus
Neoehrlichia mikurensis” (
Anaplasmataceae
) is an emerging pathogen transmitted by
Ixodes
ticks. Conventional PCR and the newly developed high-resolution melt PCR were used to detect and discriminate “
Candidatus
Neoehrlichia mikurensis” and
Anaplasma phagocytophilum
. Both bacterial species were frequently found in
Ixodes ricinus
and
Ixodes hexagonus
but virtually absent from
Dermacentor reticulatus
. In rodents, “
Candidatus
N. mikurensis” was significantly more prevalent than
A. phagocytophilum
, whereas in cats, only
A. phagocytophilum
was found.
ABSTRACT
Recently, a new genus of
Anaplasmataceae
termed “
Candidatus
Neoehrlichia” was discovered in ticks and rodents. Here, we report on two patients who suffered from febrile bacteremia due to “
Candidatus
Neoehrlichia mikurensis” associated with thrombotic or hemorrhagic events. 16S rRNA and
groEL
gene sequencing provided evidence of three groups of sequence variants.