Oct'14_dec'14_anaplamosis.pub

ANIMAL HEALTH UPDATES NATIONAL
DAIRY
DEVELOPMENT
Animal Health Group BOARD
ANAND
GUJARAT
VOLUME III ISSUE III
(For Private circulation only)
Oct'14 - Dec'14
In this issue :
Disease - Anaplasmosis and its control
 Anaplasmosis
and its control
Anaplasmosis is considered as A. marginale infection one of the top ten economically in bovine blood with Wright-Giemsa stain. important rickettsial diseases Intracellular organ- eases reported
affecting ruminants in India. isms appear as baso- to OIE during
Anaplasma species were origi-
philic, spherical inclu- Oct-Dec'14
nally regarded as protozoan
sions that are gener- parasites. The Family Anaplasma- ally located near the  ‘Plantibodies'- taceae (Order Rickettsiales) is
margin of erythro- the new line of now composed of four genera,
treatment
Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Neorickett- Source: www.merckmanuals.com sia, and Wolbachia.  CRISPR– The

Etiology
No Region
Location
gene genie
Outbreaks of bovine Anaplasmo- 1 Punjab and 60 % 33% Gautam & Singh sis are due to infection with Ana- Stand more-live
plasma marginale. Occurrence
 WTO rules
Anaplasmosis in cattle is common 3 Punjab 13 to 5 to Singh and Gill against India
on all six continents. It is transmit-ted by a diverse group of bio- 4 Bihar logical and mechanical vectors. 5 Bhopal Infection in cattle is endemic in 6 MP Misraulia et. al tropical and subtropical areas 7 - that support large populations of these vectors. Infection occurs 8 Pantnagar more sporadically in temperate 9 Karnataka Muraleedharan et. al 2005
Distribution in India
A review of literature on the inci- dence of Anaplasmosis in India 12 Madras Soundararajan and Rajavelu over the last four decades gives
a varied range from 1 to 62% in 13 Jaipur
Godara and Sharma 2010 cattle and 5 to 33% in buffalo 14 Jaipur
in field and farm conditions. The
details of the same are provided 15 Haryana

Transmission
The source of infection is always 17 Kerala the blood of an infected animal. 18 Uttarakhand 34%
Recovery from acute infection
results in persistent infection 19 Tamil Nadu 3%
VOLUME III ISSUE III
characterised by repetitive cycles of Risk factors
heavy tick infestation. Breeds with rickettsaemia. Persistent carriers are Age at infection
black or red coat colour have a higher
the reservoir for herd infection. The There is a strong correlation between risk of infection than those white coats
level of parasitaemia is often too low age of cattle and severity of disease. in regions where biting flies are the
for detection by microscopy but can Infection between six months to three be detected by nucleic acid probe insect vector. Dairy breeds may be at years has increasing risk of clinical ill- greater risk for iatrogenic transmission. ness. Animals infected after 3 years of
Haematogenous insect transmission
age are commonly affected by a per- Nutritional status
Spread from animal to animal occurs acute fatal form of disease.
Clinical disease is less severe in cattle
chiefly by insect vectors. A variety of on a low plane of nutrition. Exposure
arthropods may act as vectors but Young calves below 6 months are of infected, clinically normal animals to
significant natural vectors are ticks in susceptible to infection but seldom show devitalizing environmental influences,
the family Ixodidae (hard ticks) and clinical signs. They are much more re- particularly shortage of feed and the
flies in the family Tabanidae. Reviews sistant to disease (although not infec- presence of other diseases may result
based on careful study of reported tion) than older cattle. After recovery in the development of acute Anaplas-
transmission experiments list up to 19 from the acute phase of infection, cattle mosis.
different ticks as capable of transmit- remain chronically infected carriers but Season
ting A. marginale experimentally. are generally immune to further clinical In temperate climates a seasonal occur- Male ticks may be particularly im- disease. However, these chronically rence of disease occurs in association
portant as vectors; they can become infected cattle may relapse when im- with seasonal occurrence of the insect
persistently infected and serve as a munosuppressed or infected with other vectors.
reservoir for infection. pathogens. Carriers serve as a reser-
voir for further transmission. Serious Clinical findings
Transmission cycle
The most marked clinical signs of Ana- The organism undergoes a complex losses occur when mature cattle with no previous exposure are moved into en- plasmosis are anaemia and jaundice, developmental cycle in the gut cells of the latter occurring late in the disease. ticks and the final infective stage is demic areas or under endemically un- stable situations when transmission rates In cattle, the incubation period varies present in the salivary gland. Trans- from 2-5 weeks. After the prepatent stadial transmission of the organism are insufficient to ensure that all cattle period, peracute, acute or chronic Ana- are infected before reaching the more occurs in ticks but there is little evi- plasmosis may follow. RBC count, PCV, susceptible adult age. dence for transovarial transmission. and haemoglobin values are all se- Intrastadial transmission is significant Geographic region
verely reduced. Macrocytic anaemia with some species and transmission Clinical disease is rare in enzootic are- with circulating reticulocytes may be present late in the disease. occurs as the ticks move from one host as because the infection pressure is high Affected animals are often hyper ex- to another while they are engorging, and cattle are infected at an age when citable and tend to attack attendants including from cow to calf. Tabanids they are age resistant to clinical dis- just before death. Animals with per
are efficient mechanical vectors and ease. The average age at which calves acute infections succumb within a few can transmit infection for two hours in enzootic areas become infected is 11 hours of the onset of clinical signs.
weeks. Clinical disease occurs where Acutely infected animals lose condition

Iatrogenic transmission
there is introduction of susceptible rapidly. Inappetence, loss of coordina-
Anaplasmosis may also be transmitted animals into endemic areas or the ex- tion, breathlessness when exerted, and
by infected hypodermic needles, pansion of the vector population into a rapid bounding pulse are usually
castration, spaying or dehorning previously free areas or into the inter- evident in the late stages. The urine equipment, blood transfusion or by face between endemic and non- may be brown but, in contrast to embryo transplants. It may vary with endemic regions. babesiosis, hemoglobinuria does not
the virulence of the protozoan strain. Breed
occur. A transient febrile response,

Transplacental transmission
Bos indicus, Bos Taurus and their crosses with the body temperature rarely ex- Transplacental transmission has been have equal susceptibility to infection ceeding 106°F (41°C) occurs at about
reported and is usually associated and show the same age susceptibility the time of peak rickettsaemia. Mucous
with acute infection of the dam in the but under field conditions, Bos indicus membranes appear pale and then yel-
second or third trimester of gestation. are not commonly affected preferably low. Pregnant cows may abort. Surviv-

because of their relative resistance to ing cattle convalesce over several

VOLUME III ISSUE III
weeks during which hematologic pa- scope. In these smears, A. marginale should be made from Babesiosis, Trypa-
rameters gradually return to normal. In appear as dense, rounded, intraeryth- nosomiasis, Theileriosis, Leptospirosis &
case of surviving cattle, fertility is gen- rocytic bodies with most situated on or Bacillary haemoglobinuria.
erally impaired. In convalescent bulls near the margin of the erythrocyte. A. Treatment
there may be depressed testicular centrale is similar in appearance, but Clinical cases
function for several months.
most of the organisms are situated (1) Oxytetracycline : 6-10 mg/kg body weight (bw) daily for three days, Necropsy findings
away from the margin of the erythro- or a single injection of long acting oxy-
1) Enlarged and congested spleen cyte. It can be difficult to differentiate tetracycline at a dose of 20 mg/kg (splenomegaly) showing soft pulp. A. marginale from A. centrale in a intramuscularly (I/m). The convalescent 2) Distended gall bladder with dark stained smear, particularly with low period is long. Concurrent administra-
levels of rickettsaemia.
tion of estradiol cypionate (14.3 mg/ 3) Thin, watery blood, which clots kg bw i/m) appears to improve the rate of recovery. Tetracycline treat- 4) Enlarged, icteric liver, deep orange ment may not eliminate infection but
in colour and distended bile ducts immunity will persist. 5) Lemon yellow carcass and connec- (2) Imidocarb: 3mg/kg bw. It also does tive tissue, sclera of the eye, ten- not interfere with the development of dons, pleura, peritoneum, and at- tachments of diaphragm. (3) Blood transfusions are indicated in
Samples for post-mortem diagnosis
animals with a PCV less than 15%. 1) Clinical pathology: Blood smears Rough handling must be avoided. from cut surface of ear; impression Icteric liver Animals cleared off infection are sus- smears from internal organs (liver, ceptible to reinfection but are resistant kidney, heart and lungs) for Light Serological tests
to clinical disease for considerable pe- Microscopy (LM) or Fluorescent A competitive enzyme-linked immuno- riods. Antibody Test (FAT). It is important sorbent assay (C-ELISA) has been
that smears are well prepared and demonstrated to have good sensitivity Prophylaxis
free from foreign matter.
in detecting carrier animals. Card ag- Temporary protection in the face of an
2) Histology: Formalin fixed spleen, glutination is the next most frequently exposure risk can be achieved with a liver, bone marrow for LM. used assay. Cross reactivity between single i/m injection at 20 mg/kg bw of
Anaplasma spp. can complicate inter- long acting tetracycline. The results
pretation of serological tests. In gen- generally are good except when cattle
eral, the C-ELISA has the best specifici- are exposed to infection during the 14
ty, with cross-reactivity described be- days prior to treatment. Prolonged
tween A. marginale, A. centrale, A. protection can be achieved by adminis-
phagocytophilum and Ehrlichia spp.
tering 20 mg/kg bw of long acting
Nucleic-acid-based tests
tetracycline i/m every 28 days or by Nucleic acid based tests have been chlortetracycline in the feed at 1.1 used experimentally, and are capable mg /kg bw daily. of detecting the presence of low-level Elimination of carrier stage
infection in carrier cattle and tick vec- (1) Four doses of long acting tetracy-
Lemon yellow carcass tors. A nested reaction is necessary to cline at 3 day interval @ 20 mg/ Diagnosis
identify low-level carriers using conven- Kg body weight intramuscularly Identification of the agent
tional polymerase chain reaction (PCR). have chances of eliminating carrier
Microscopic examination of blood or Recently, real-time PCR assays with organ smears stained with Giemsa is analytical sensitivity equivalent to nest- (2) Imidocarb dipropionate @ 5mg/
the most common method of identify- ed conventional PCR have been de-
Kg given imtramuscularly in two ing Anaplasma in clinically affected scribed. doses at 14 day interval may
animals. It can be done in any labora- Differential diagnosis
eliminate carrier state.
tory having an oil immersion micro- Differential diagnosis of Anaplasmosis VOLUME III ISSUE II
Significant animal diseases reported to OIE (Oct'–Dec'14)
1. Adopt a proper tick and fly control programme in enzo- No
Disease Outbreak
Countries reporting
Transmissible gastroenteritis (pigs) 2. Avoid introduction of carrier animals into herds through 2 Highly path. avian influenza
prior serological screening. 3. Avoid iatrogenic transmission by proper disinfection of 3
instruments /equipment after use on each animal. Coronavirus (camels) 4. Limit the introduction of animals that are less than 2 5 Caprine arthritis/encephalitis
years of age and also induct them when the insect popu-
lation is least numerous.
African swine fever 5. Eliminate carrier state by serological testing and culling 7 Contagious agalactia(sheep & goat) United Kingdom
of reactors or by treating them as outlined above. Source: www.oie.int 6. Manage outbreaks by treating affected animals and
‘Plantibodies'- the new line of treatment
providing prophylaxis to in-contact animals. Subsequently all exposed animals should be tested serologically and Doctors recently treated two Ebola patients successfully the reactors treated/ removed. with an experimental drug ZMapp, a mixture of different 7. Provide prolonged treatment regimens to provide pro- antibodies made from tobacco plants. Plants do not have
tect cattle in seasonal risk periods of transmission. antibodies of their own, but they nonetheless have the cel- 8. Remove/re-treat animals that are seropositive even six lular machinery to make these proteins. The process takes
months after treatment (treatment failures). little over a month- a faster and cheaper means of manu-
Vaccination
facturing than using hamster ovary cells, which is the stand- Both live and killed vaccines are used in some countries to ard. Growing plants is relatively inexpensive. ‘Plantibodies'
protect cattle against A. marginale infection. However, no in development include those designed to target HIV, her-
vaccines are presently available in India. 
pes, cancer and rabies. Scientific American, December 2014  
Zoonotic potential
A. marginale infection has not been reported in humans and
CRISPR- The gene genie
therefore is not zoonotic. 
Scientists have known how to alter the genomes of living organisms since 1970s. But many methods remained too 1. Veterinary Medicine. A textbook of the diseases of cattle, sheep, pigs, goats difficult or costly to conduct. A new method called CRISPR
and horses: Radostits, O. M., Gay, C.C., Blood, D. C., Hinchcliff, K. W., 9th edition. Pp 1308-1310. (Clustered, Regularly Interspaced, Short Palindromic Re- 2. Rebhun's Diseases of Dairy Cattle. Thomas J Divers., Simon F Peek., 2nd edi- peats) could foment the genome editing evolution. tion, Saunders Elsevier Pp.617-619. Based on immune defences of bacteria, it is faster, cheaper and easier than older techniques. CRISPR based treatments for diseases like HIV, Alzhiemer's and schizophrenia and (Bovine).doc.pdf already being explored. Using CRISPR, scientists have been able to completely ex- cise the integrated copy of HIV, converting infected cells to uninfected cells, a feat that could not be achieved despite huge strides in AIDS treatment. Stand more-live more!
Scientific American, December 2014. Eighteen studies reported during the past 16 years cover-ing 8,00,000 people found that those who sat for more WTO rules against India
than 4 hours a day had a 46% increase in deaths from any WTO dispute panel has ruled that India's measure of cause when compared to people who sat for less than 2 blocking U.S. poultry imports citing bird flu fears was un- hours. Other researchers have found that sitting for more substantiated and discriminatory and not based on interna- than half the day, approximately doubles the risk of diabe- tional standards. The US filed the case in March 2012. In- tes and cardiovascular problems. Overall, when you com- dia could however appeal against the ruling. The ruling bine all causes of death and compare any group of sitters could increase imports of poultry products from the US, with those who are more active, sitters have a 50% greater although India could still restrict imports using other likelihood of dying. Pat yourself on your back if you are measures such as anti-dumping duties if US tries to sell at reading this standing up!! unfairly cheap prices. Source : Reuters , October ‘14 Scientific American, November 2014. Disclaimer : The views expressed in the articles of this issue are not that of NDDB but have been obtained from the source (s) mentioned at the end
of each article.
For further details please contact : Dr.A V Hari Kumar , Sr. Manager (AH), NDDB, Anand, Phone : 02692 226244 E mail:[email protected]

Source: http://www.dairyknowledge.in/sites/default/files/anaplamosis.pdf