Occurrence of Anaplasmosis (Anaplasma Marginale) in cattle in Sulaimani province, Kurdistan region of Iraq

The goal of this study was to determine both the incidence of anaplasmosis (Anaplasma Marginale) and phylogenetic relationship between A. marginale isolates from cattle in Sulaimani province, Kurdistan Region- Iraq during (March 10th to April 10th 2021) and those from other Anaplasma spp. A total of two isolates were tested for the major surface protein (msp4) gene for this purpose. Eighty blood samples of cattle (51 males and 29 females) were examined using both microscopic examination and PCR tests. Overall results were 23/80 (28.7 5%) and 8/80 (10 %) using microscopic examination and PCR assay, respectively. Age and sex were not significant factors in the appearance of infection, since no statistically significant difference in infection rate has been observed among sex and age group of cattle (P value >0.05). The results also revealed that the accuracies of traditional method and PCR assays in the diagnosis of the disease were 81 %, and 100 respectively. There was moderate correlation (0.43) between both techniques by the Kappa (k) test. However, The PCR technique recorded the highest sensitivity (100%) and specify (100%) for A. marginale detection. In conclusion, by the findings of the present study, it has been confirmed for the first time that A. marginale is the causative agent of anaplasmosis of cattle in the study areas and the best technique for the detection of either acute or chronic cases in cattle was the PCR assay.