Prevalence and Genotyping of Strains from Wild Animals, European Bison () and Eurasian Moose () in Poland.

Wild large ungulates, like European bison () and Eurasian moose (), form an important part of the circulation of , a Gram-negative, intracellular, tick-transmitted bacterium, in the natural environment. Bison and moose tissue samples were subjected to rDNA, and partial gene marker amplification with specific primers using various variants of PCR. Out of 42 examined individuals, sp. were detected in 4/13 Eurasian moose (31%) and 7/29 European bison (24%). In addition, 12 and 5 partial gene positive samples were obtained from the examined animals. The phylogenetic analysis of the partial gene classified samples from European bison to ecotype I, and samples from Eurasian moose to ecotype I and II; the analysis of the partial gene assigned the samples to clusters I and IV. This study extends knowledge about in wild large ungulates in Poland. This is the first report about the occurrence of sp. in one of the largest populations of free living European bison in the world. Our findings confirm that strains of from and may constitute a natural reservoir of pathogenic HGA strains.