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Background: A newly discovered zoonotic infection carried by ixodid ticks, Anaplasma capra, affects a wide variety of hosts, including numerous mammals. A. capra most likely infects erythrocytes or endothelial cells in mammals. This study aimed to investigate the A. capra pathogen in goats in Türkiye's Van province. Methods: A total of 200 goat blood samples were examined. Goat samples were subjected to partial amplification of the gltA gene fragment using a nested polymerase chain reaction. Results: A. capra DNA was detected in 0.5% of goat blood samples. Phylogenetic analysis of a partial gltA gene fragment showed that the Eastern Türkiye isolate, closely grouped with A. capra isolates reported from wild and domestic ruminants in France, Türkiye, and Kyrgyzstan, formed a distinct clade. Conclusions: This is the first report of A. capra in goats in Van province, Eastern Türkiye. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tick-borne diseases have been an increasing threat to human and animal health all over the world. Anaplasmosis is one of the emerging tick-borne diseases and has zoonotic potential. A new novel species, which was detected in China in 2010-2012 and provisionally named Anaplasma capra in 2015, causes zoonotic infections and infects many different animal species. In this study, we investigated the presence of A. capra in domestic ruminants from Turkey. A total of 468 blood samples (cattle, sheep, and goat) were examined by the gltA gene-specific nested polymerase chain reaction, revealing the presence of A. capra in six samples (1.28%): one of them from cattle (0.41%) and the other five from sheep (3.22%). According to DNA sequences results of the gltA gene, A. capra isolates identified in the present study were shown high nucleotide similarity with A. capra isolates detected from different hosts. However, the nucleotide differences were detected in the same nucleotide positions between A. capra isolates. For this reason, we thought that at least two different A. capra genotypes could be circulating in the world. As a result, it is seen that A. capra, which was determined to be a new species with zoonotic potential, was revealed in European and Asian countries and in different hosts. In order to raise awareness about human anaplasmosis infections, it is important to reveal the prevalence of the species in the world. The emergence of A. capra in Turkey reveals the need for a re-evaluation of the human and animal health risk analysis in terms of anaplasmosis., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)