Molecular Prevalence, Risk Assessment, and Phylogenetic Analysis of Anaplasma platys Infection in Dogs and Its Detection in Vector Ticks in Odisha, India

Canine tick-borne diseases pose a major health problem in dogs globally and in hot and humid climatic environments of tropical regions, in particular. The present study aimed to assess the prevalence of Anaplasma platys infections and its co-infections in dogs in eight coastal districts of Odisha along with its detection in the vector ticks, to evaluate the risk factors associated with A. platys infection in dogs, and haematological changes in infected dogs. The molecular detection and characterization of A. platys were carried out in extracted DNA from blood samples (n = 306) and parasitizing ticks (n = 51) targeting the HSP GroEL gene which generated amplicons of 292 bp. The overall prevalence of A. platys in screened dogs by conventional PCR was found to be 19.9%, whereas 64.7% ticks (only Rhipicephalus spp.) were found to harbor the pathogen. The polymerase chain reaction positive blood samples (n = 61) were analyzed by multiplex polymerase chain reaction and the prevalence of co-infections of A. platys with Ehrlichia canis, Hepatozoon canis, Babesia gibsoni, Babesia vogeli, and both E. canis and B. gibsoni were found to be 4.9%, 2%, 1.6%, 0.3% and 1%, respectively. The risk of infection was significantly associated with rainy season compared to the summer and winter seasons. Dogs with strict in-house domestication and ectoparasiticides treatment within 2 months were found to have a significantly lower infection rate. Overall, 56.9% dogs were clinically affected with anaplasmosis, whereas 43.1% dogs were found to be asymptomatic with significantly higher total erythrocyte count than clinically affected dogs. The nucleotide sequence identity study revealed 99%–100% similarity of the Odisha isolate with other global isolates of A. platys from dogs. The Odisha isolate was closely related to the nucleotide sequences of A. platys, isolated from dogs of Paraguay, Nepal and ticks from Taiwan and China, as revealed by the phylogenetic analysis.

Cite this article as: Pati, M., Patra, R. C., Mishra, S. R., Dehuri, M., Jena, G. R., Mishra, C., & Karna, D. K. (2026). Molecular prevalence, risk assessment, and phylogenetic analysis of Anaplasma platys infection in dogs and its detection in vector ticks in Odisha, India. Acta Veterinaria Eurasia, 52, 0157, doi:10.5152/actavet.2026.25157.