| Jun-Gu Kang | 8 Articles |
Bovine borreliosis, caused by Borrelia theileri which is transmitted via hard tick bites, is associated with mild clinical symptoms, such as fever, lethargy, hemoglobinuria, anorexia, and anemia. Borrelia theileri infects various animals, such as cattle, deer, horses, goats, sheep, and wild ruminants, in Africa, Australia, and South America. Notably, no case of B. theileri infection has been reported in Korean cattle to date. In this study, 101 blood samples were collected from a Korean indigenous cattle breed, among which 1.98% tested positive for B. theileri via nested PCR. The obtained sequences exhibited high homology with B. theileri strains identified in other regions. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA confirmed the B. theileri group affiliation; however, flagellin B sequences exhibited divergence, potentially due to regional evolutionary differences. This study provides the first molecular confirmation of B. theileri infection in Korean livestock. Further isolation and nucleotide sequence analyses are necessary to better understand the presence of B. theileri strains in cows in Korea.
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Feline hemotropic mycoplasmosis (hemoplasmosis) is an infection of the red blood cells caused by the Mycoplasma haemofelis (Mhf), Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum (CMhm), and Candidatus Mycoplasma turicensis (CMt). The existence of Mhf, CMhm, and CMt has been demonstrated in feral cats in Korea using molecular methods, but no clinical cases have yet been reported. This study reports 2 clinical cases of hemotropic mycoplasmosis caused by CMhm and CMt in 2 anemic cats. The first case was a client-owned intact female domestic shorthair cat that presented with fever, pale mucous membranes, and normocytic normochromic non-regenerative anemia. Prior to referral, an immunosuppressive prednisolone dose was administered at the local veterinary clinic for 1 month. The cat was diagnosed with high-grade alimentary lymphoma. Organisms were found on the surface of the red blood cells on blood smear examination. The second case was of a rescued cat that presented with dehydration and fever. The cat had normocytic normochromic non-regenerative anemia. Necropsy revealed concurrent feline infectious peritonitis. Polymerase chain reaction assay targeting 16S rRNA revealed CMhm infection in case 1 and dual infection of CMhm and CMt in case 2. Normocytic normochromic non-regenerative anemia was observed in both cats before and during the management of the systemic inflammation. This is the first clinical case report in Korea to demonstrate CMhm and CMt infections in symptomatic cats.
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Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) is a zoonotic, tick-borne RNA virus of the genus Bandavirus (Family Phenuiviridae), mainly reported in China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (Korea). For the purpose of this study, a total of 3,898 adult and nymphal ticks of species Haemaphysalis longicornis (94.2%), Haemaphysalis flava (5.0%), Ixodes nipponensis (0.8%), and 1 specimen of Ixodes ovatus, were collected from the Deogyusan National Park, Korea, between April 2016 and June 2018. A single-step reverse transcriptase–nested PCR was performed, targeting the S segment of the SFTSV RNA. Total infection rate (IR) of SFTSV in individual ticks was found to be 6.0%. Based on developmental stages, IR was 5.3% in adults and 6.0% in nymphs. The S segment sequences obtained from PCR were divided into 17 haplotypes. All haplotypes were phylogenetically clustered into clades B-2 and B-3, with 92.7% sequences in B-2 and 7.3% in B-3. These observations indicate that the Korean SFTSV strains were closer to the Japanese than the Chinese strains. Further epidemiological studies are necessary to better understand the characteristics of the Korean SFTSV and its transmission cycle in the ecosystem.
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This report describes the first clinical case of a transfusion-associated Mycoplasma haemocanis infection in a dog in Korea. A 6-year-old male Maltese underwent a red blood cell transfusion for idiopathic immune-mediated hemolytic anemia. Eighteen days after the blood transfusion, the recipient’s packed cell volume decreased and basophilic organisms were found on erythrocytes. A polymerase chain reaction and sequential analysis showed that both the donor dog and recipient dog had M. haemocanis. Six weeks after doxycycline administration, no organisms were detected and the recipient’s anemia had improved.
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This study aimed to investigate the tick species and give background for tick-borne investigations in Korea. Ticks were collected from the area within 2 km radius of the 4 domestic animal farms, where they were located in mountainous areas and raising animals on pasture, and from animal bodies in 2014 and 2015. In total, 7,973 nymphal and adult ticks were collected from the farms - 7,758 Haemaphysalis longicornis, 198 Haemaphysalis flava, and 17 Ixodes nipponensis, and 1,763 were collected from animals - 729 H. longicornis from cattle; 569 H. longicornis from goats; and 297 H. longicornis, 118 H. flava, 1 I. nipponensis, and 49 Amblyomma testudinarium from wild boars. As more species of ticks were collected from wild boars than domesticated animals and their habitats, various animal hosts should be considered while investigating tick species.
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Tick is one of the most important arthropods in the transmission of vector-borne diseases. In this study, we investigated the abundance and species of ticks associated with swine and their habitats to assess the risk of spread of tick-borne diseases in host species, such as wild boars. Ticks were collected from 24 grazing or traditionally reared domestic pig farms and 8 habitats of wild boars in 8 provinces and 1 city in the Republic of Korea, by using the dragging and flagging methods. Ticks were also collected directly from 49 wild boars by using fine forceps. A total of 9,846 hard ticks were collected, including 4,977 Haemaphysalis longicornis, 4,313 Haemaphysalis flava, 508 Ixodes nipponensis, 1 Ixodes turdus, and 47 Amblyomma testudinarium. A total of 240 hard ticks were collected from 49 wild boars, including 109 H. flava, 84 H. longicornis, and 47 A. testudinarium. A total of 578 hard ticks were collected from areas around domestic pig farms. Only 2 hard tick species, 546 H. longicornis and 32 H. flava, were collected from these areas. A total of 9,028 hard ticks were collected from wild boars of 8 habitats, including 4,347 H. longicornis, 4,172 H. flava, 508 I. nipponensis, and 1 I. turdus. A. testudinarium was collected only from wild boars, and I. nipponensis and I. turdus were collected only from the habitats of wild boars.
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Deer serve as reservoirs of tick-borne pathogens that impact on medical and veterinary health worldwide. In the Republic of Korea, the population of Korean water deer (KWD, Hydropotes inermis argyropus) has greatly increased from 1982 to 2011, in part, as a result of reforestation programs established following the Korean War when much of the land was barren of trees. Eighty seven Haemaphysalis flava, 228 Haemaphysalis longicornis, 8 Ixodes nipponensis, and 40 Ixodes persulcatus (21 larvae, 114 nymphs, and 228 adults) were collected from 27 out of 70 KWD. A total of 89/363 ticks (266 pools, 24.5% minimum infection rate) and 5 (1.4%) fed ticks were positive for Anaplasma phagocytophilum using nested PCR targeting the 16S rRNA and groEL genes, respectively. The 16S rRNA gene fragment sequences of 88/89 (98.9%) of positive samples for A. phagocytophilum corresponded to previously described gene sequences from KWD spleen tissues. The 16S rRNA gene fragment sequences of 20/363 (5.5%) of the ticks were positive for A. bovis and were identical to previously reported sequences. Using the ITS specific nested PCR, 11/363 (3.0%) of the ticks were positive for Bartonella spp. This is the first report of Anaplasma and Bartonella spp. detected in ticks collected from KWD, suggesting that ticks are vectors of Anaplasma and Bartonella spp. between reservoir hosts in natural surroundings.
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A tick survey was conducted to determine the relative abundance and distribution of ticks associated with selected mammals in the Republic of Korea (ROK) during 2008-2009. A total of 918 ticks were collected from 76 mammals (6 families, 9 species) captured at 6 provinces and 3 Metropolitan Cities in ROK. Haemaphysalis longicornis (54.4%) was the most frequently collected tick, followed by Citations Citations to this article as recorded by
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