Molecular detection of in Pshdar Kurdish shepherd dogs of Sulaymaniyah Province, Iraq.

BACKGROUND AND AIM

is a dog pathogen that causes anaplasmosis in various hosts, including humans. It is a rickettsial pathogen that causes cyclic thrombocytopenia in primary canine recipients and is spread by the brown dog tick . This study aimed to map the genetic sequences of spp. isolates comparable with those of different global locations and determine the infection status of Pshdar Kurdish shepherd dogs from three regions in Sulaymaniyah province who did not exhibit clinical indications for .

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 75 dog blood samples were collected from the center of the Sulaymaniyah, Dukan, and Ranya districts in the Sulaymaniyah province and subjected to polymerase chain reaction to determine the 16S ribosomal RNA () gene of .

RESULTS

Only two dogs (2.7%) were positive for . The gene of was sequenced and registered in the National Center for Biotechnology Information GenBank with accession number OR467538. With four nucleotide changes, the sequence exhibited 99.72% similarity to strains identified as human infections and those found in recognized tick vectors.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that the blood of Pshdar Kurdish shepherd dogs in the Sulaymaniyah region of Iraq contains a small number of . Moreover, the phylogenetic tree of the isolated species, , was significantly similar to other strains of found worldwide. In the Kurdistan region of Iraq, this study represents the first molecular detection of the gene of .