Investigation on the Haemaphysalis longicornis infected with Anaplasma phagocytophilum in Hubei Province, China.

To investigate the prevalence of the Anaplasma phagocytophilum in ticks in Hubei Province,16S rRNA of A.phagocytophilum collected from ticks were amplified with PCR and sequence analysis.A total of 72 Haemaphysalis longicornis were tested,and the minimum infection rate was 4.22%.The sequence of 16S rRNA amplified was compared with the corresponding parts of the sequence deposited in GenBank,the similarities of the nucleotide sequences with 24 genes deposited in GenBank were 100%.It is concluded that the infection of A.phagocytophilum in H.longicornis is demonstrated for the first time in Hubei Province,China.