anaplasma infection in ticks in southeastern region of iran

Background: anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis are the most important tick-borne diseases. this study was conducted in three cities of kerman province in iran to investigate the circulation of the bacteria in ticks collected from sheep. methods: ticks were collected from animals using srkj forceps and transferred to the entomology lab in cold chain. after specimen’s identification, they kept at -70 ºc. tick dna was extracted using bioneers dna extraction kits followed by nested pcr technique to amplify ribosomal 16s rrna gene to detect anaplasma infection in ticks. results: 472 sheep were examined from which 349 ticks were collected and identified in laboratory using valid keys. tick specimens belonged to two genera and four species; hyalomma marginatum (62.47%) was the most frequent and hylomma asiaticum (5.73%) showed the least abundance. the infestation rate to different tick species was different in three regions of kerman province. observation revealed that 24 specimens (58.3%) were positive for anaplasma. there is a significant difference between male and female infection rate. however, there is no sig-nificant difference between these variables in each of these cities. conclusion: this study shows high infection rates to anaplasma in hard ticks. it is essential for health and veteri-nary authorities and farmers to use appropriate strategies to control ticks to reduce the infestation.