ArticleParasites & vectors2020
The absence of the drhm gene is not a marker for human-pathogenicity in European Anaplasma phagocytophilum strains.
Article in Parasites & vectors, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploration of geographical population structure ofCurrent research in parasitology & vector-borne diseases · 2026Article
- Molecular detection and characterization ofInternational journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2025Article
- Impact of Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis in Spain from 1997 to 2022.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2025Review
- Investigation of the Blood Microbiome in Horses With Fever of Unknown Origin.Veterinary medicine and science · 2025Article
- European human granulocytic anaplasmosis is caused by a subcluster ofCurrent research in parasitology & vector-borne diseases · 2025Article
- Anaplasma capra: a new emerging tick-borne zoonotic pathogen.Veterinary research communications · 2024Review
- Prevalence of tick-borne bacterial pathogens in Germany-has the situation changed after a decade?Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Article
- Granulocytic anaplasmosis in cats from central Europe and molecular characterization of feline Anaplasma phagocytophilum strains by ankA gene, groEL gene and multilocus sequence typing.Parasites & vectors · 2023Article
- Genomic analyses indicate the North American Ap-ha variant of the tick-vectored bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum was introduced from Europe.Parasites & vectors · 2023Article
- Tick Densities and Infection Prevalence on Coastal Islands in Massachusetts, USA: Establishing a Baseline.Insects · 2023Article
- Presence ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The Biological and Ecological Features of Northbound Migratory Birds, Ticks, and Tick-Borne Microorganisms in the African-Western Palearctic.Microorganisms · 2023Review
- Demographic Expansions and the Emergence of Host Specialization in Genetically Distinct Ecotypes of the Tick-Transmitted Bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2022Article
- Molecular Characterization ofAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Red and fallow deer determine the density of Ixodes ricinus nymphs containing Anaplasma phagocytophilum.Parasites & vectors · 2021Article
- Correction to: The absence of the drhm gene is not a marker for human-pathogenicity in European Anaplasma phagocytophilum strains.Parasites & vectors · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
14 authors at 10 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAnaplasma phagocytophilum is a Gram-negative obligate intracellular bacterium that replicates in neutrophil granulocytes. It is transmitted by ticks of the Ixodes ricinus complex and causes febrile illness in humans and animals. The geographical distribution of A. phagocytophilum spans the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. However, human disease predominantly occurs in North America but is infrequently reported from Europe and Asia. In North American strains, the absence of the drhm gene has been proposed as marker for pathogenicity in humans whereas no information on the presence or absence of the drhm gene was available for A. phagocytophilum strains circulating in Europe. Therefore, we tested 511 European and 21 North American strains for the presence of drhm and compared the results to two other typing methods: multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and ankA-based typing.
resultsAltogether, 99% (478/484) of the analyzable European and 19% (4/21) of the North American samples from different hosts were drhm-positive. Regarding the strains from human granulocytic anaplasmosis cases, 100% (35/35) of European origin were drhm-positive and 100% (14/14) of North American origin were drhm-negative. Human strains from North America and Europe were both part of MLST cluster 1. North American strains from humans belonged to ankA gene clusters 11 and 12 whereas European strains from humans were found in ankA gene cluster 1. However, the North American ankA gene clusters 11 and 12 were highly identical at the nucleotide level to the European cluster 1 with 97.4% and 95.2% of identity, respectively.
conclusionsThe absence of the drhm gene in A. phagocytophilum does not seem to be associated with pathogenicity for humans per se, because all 35 European strains of human origin were drhm-positive. The epidemiological differences between North America and Europe concerning the incidence of human A. phagocytophilum infection are not explained by strain divergence based on MLST and ankA gene-based typing.
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