How has anaplasmosis mutated that it is now considered lethal?”
Anaplasmosis is a disease caused by a rickettsial parasite of ruminants, Anaplasma spp. The organism occurs in the white blood cells and is transmitted by natural means through by a number of haematophagous species of ticks. It can also be transmitted iatrogenically by the use of surgical, dehorning, castration, and tattoo instruments and hypodermic needles that are not disinfected between uses. The organism can go through a complete lifecycle in the gut of certain species of ticks but the flies appear to be only a mechanical vector, thus, not as important in the maintaining the disease in any given area. The disease causes severe anemia and wasting in adult cattle which are infected. Young cattle and most other ruminants will not show clinical signs if infected but may serve as carriers. Since the organism “hides” from the body’s immune system in red blood cells, it is difficult if not impossible for an infection to be totally cleared. As the immune response wanes, the organism again
It is now considered endemic in parts of central and western Africa (DiGiulio & Eckburg, ….. most probably by alteration to a mutated form with greater infectivity, …. Lethal experimental infections of rhesus monkeys by aerosolized Ebola virus. …. Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Human granulocytic anaplasmosis …
