Molecular and Serological Identification of Anaplasma marginale and Borrelia burgdorferi in Cattle and Ticks from Nuevo Leon, Northern Mexico.

Ticks and tick-borne diseases affect livestock productivity and cause significant economic losses. Therefore, surveillance of these pathogens and vectors is paramount to reducing these effects in livestock. This study aimed to identify and sensu lato in ticks collected from cattle. Molecular biology techniques were utilized to identify for both types of samples, i.e., ticks and bovine blood. Serology of cattle using indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) was conducted to determine antibodies to . s.l. from seven locations in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, between 2015 and 2017. From 404 bovines, 2880 ticks were collected: (2391 females and 395 males), spp. (51 females and 42 males) and (1 female). represented the largest specimens captured, with 96.7% within the seven study sites. PCR processed only 15% (442) of tick samples to identify . Field genera proportions were followed to select testing tick numbers. Results showed that 9.9% (44/442) of infected the pooled tick species, whereas the highest percent corresponded to 9.4% (38/404) in . Regarding the molecular analysis of blood samples, 214 of 337 (63.5%) were positive for . In each of the seven locations, at least one bovine sample tested positive for . s.l. was not found either in the ticks or serum samples. Two DNA nucleotide sequences obtained in this study were deposited in the GenBank with the following accession numbers OR050501 cattle, and OR050500 tick. Results of this work point to current distribution of bovine anaplasmosis in northern Mexico.