Morphological and Molecular Investigation of Anaplasma Infection in Dromedary Camel (Camelus dromedarius) in Bushehr Province, Iran

Anaplasmosis is caused by an obligate intracellular, gram-negative microorganism, which be-longs to the family Anaplasmatacea and can be transmitted by ticks and other arthropods.

The present study aimed to investigate the status of Anaplasma spp. infection by microscopy and molecular methods in dromedary camels in Bushehr province, Iran.

A total of 139 blood samples were collected from dromedary camels in Bushehr province. Giemsa staining and nested-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were conducted to detect Anaplasma infection in the drome-dary camels.

We found that 27 (19.4%) out of the total 139 blood samples were suspected for the presence of Ana-plasma spp. by morphological study. The PCR and nested-PCR sequencing results showed 111 (80%) and 134 (96%) samples positive for Anaplasma spp. and BLAST search in NCBI GenBank presented 100% identity with Candidatus Anaplasma camelii.

The molecular results presented the high frequency of Candidatus Anaplasma camelii in camels, in Bushehr city.