Published Online: 29 March 2015
Ticks
transmit the widest variety of pathogens among arthropod vectors,
leading to substantial public health threats and economic loss in
livestock industries.
1 Novel tick-transmitted microbes with links to human disease continue to be discovered. In
The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Hao Li and colleagues
2
describe a new tick-transmitted bacterium from patients in northern
China. PCR and sequencing showed nucleotide variations signifying a
phylogenetically distinct
Anaplasma species. The provisionally nominated
“Anaplasma capra”—so named for its discovery in goats (
Capra aegagrus hircus)—joins the growing list of human anaplasmosis pathogens with pastoral origins.
