Anaplasma phagocytophilum can infect a wide range of vertebrates; nevertheless, some genetic variants are associated with particular species of tick vectors and animal hosts. It has been suggested that roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) mainly acts as a reservoir of several A. phagocytophilum non-pathogenic variants for other animal species. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and identify the genetic variants of A. phagocytophilum in roe deer from Spain in order to assess host-pathogen associations and their pathogenic potential.

The spleens of 212 roe deer hunted in Spain were individually collected and analysed by a commercial qPCR kit in order to detect the presence of A. phagocytophilum DNA. Positive samples were further characterized at groESL, 16S rRNA and msp2 partial genes. The possible influence of several intrinsic (age and sex) and extrinsic factors (ecological area) on A. phagocytophilum prevalence was analysed using a logistic regression.

Overall, 41.5 % of the samples resulted positive to A. phagocytophilum. The percentage of infected roe deer was significantly higher in the Mediterranean and Oceanic areas than in the Continental and Mountain regions; nevertheless, prevalence was not related to age or sex. Sequence analysis at groESL and 16S rRNA genes allowed the identification of three ecotypes (I to III) and four variants (“Y”, “X”, “W”, “I”), respectively. A high percentage of roe deer from Spain is infected with different variants of A. phagocytophilum; these results have implications for public and animal health since some of these ecotypes and variants have been previously identified in both human and animal clinical cases.

吞噬性无浆细胞可感染多种脊椎动物。但是，某些遗传变异与壁虱载体和动物宿主的特定种类有关。有人建议，狍（狍）主要充当的几个水库A.吞噬细胞无致病性变异对于其它动物种类。这项研究的目的是确定流行性并从西班牙ro中鉴定吞噬嗜碱曲霉的遗传变异，以评估宿主-病原体的关联及其致病潜力。

分别收集在西班牙猎杀的212头的脾脏，并通过商业qPCR试剂盒进行分析，以检测嗜A.phagocytophilum DNA的存在。阳性样品在groESL，16S rRNA和msp2部分基因处进一步表征。使用逻辑回归分析了几种内在因素（年龄和性别）和外在因素（生态区域）对吞噬嗜血曲霉菌患病率的可能影响。

总体而言，有41.5％的样品对嗜A.phagocytophilum呈阳性。地中海和海洋地区areas的感染百分比明显高于大陆和山区。但是，患病率与年龄或性别无关。groESL和16S rRNA基因的序列分析分别鉴定了三种生态型（I至III）和四种变体（“ Y”，“ X”，“ W”，“ I”）。从西班牙狍高比例的感染了不同的变种A.吞噬细胞; 这些结果对公共和动物健康具有影响，因为先前已经在人和动物临床病例中鉴定出其中一些生态型和变体。