Molecular Identification of Anaplasma pathogenic Species in Sheep in Mazandaran Province

The aim of this study was to determinate the variety of Anaplasma species among sheep of Mazandaran province, Iran .For this purpose, a total of 95 blood samples were collected via the jugular vein from healthy sheep randomly.The extracted DNA from blood cells were amplified by Anaplasma-all primers, which amplify an approximately 1468bp DNA fragment from region of 16S rRNA gene from various members of the genus Anaplasma. 70 (73.7%) out of 95 sheep blood samples were Anaplasma spp. positive by first PCR and nested PCR. All sheep positive samples were analysed for the presence of A. phagocytophilum and 22 of sheep blood samples (23.2%) were positive for A.phagocytophilum. The extracted DNA from positive Anaplasma spp. samples were amplified by Anaplasma ovis specific primers, which amplify an approximately 866bp DNA fragment from region of msp4 gene. 56 out of 95 sheep blood samples (58.9%) were positive for Anaplasma ovis. This study is the first molecular detection of Anaplasma species from sheep in Mazandaran province. The results show that there is a significant difference among the percentage of sheep infection to Anaplasma phagocytophilum with different seasons of the year (P<0.05).Also, there are a significant difference among the percentage of sheep infection to anaplasma ovis with different seasons of the year, above sea level, Sex and longitude. (P<0.05).