Topic: 2007: Raccoon Ehrlichia-Like Agent in Tick Cell Culture
CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
posted
1: Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2007 Sep 14;
Isolation and Establishment of the Raccoon Ehrlichia-Like Agent in Tick Cell Culture.
Munderloh UG, Yabsley MJ, Murphy SM, Luttrell MP, Howerth EW. Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Feral animals are reservoirs of emerging human pathogens, as well as carriers of closely related wildlife diseases. The latter may interfere with epidemiologic studies by inducing cross-reactive antibodies, or by providing false positive signals in PCR based tests. We cultured a novel intracellular bacterium from the blood of two raccoons (Procyon lotor): RAC413 and RAC414. RAC413 had been experimentally inoculated with blood from a wild-caught raccoon, and provided the material for a blood passage into RAC414. The microbes grew in Ixodes scapularis (black-legged tick) cells, line ISE6, inoculated either with the leukocyte or erythrocyte fraction of anticoagulated blood. Giemsa-stained cells sampled two and three months after initial inoculation of the cultures revealed inclusions similar to those of Ehrlichia sp., except that individual bacteria commonly were elongated and clustered within endosomes. Electronmicroscopy confirmed the presence of irregularly shaped bacteria with evenly granular bacterioplasm bounded by a unit membrane.
16S rDNA sequencing identified the microbes as the raccoon Ehrlichia-like agent previously detected in feral raccoons from Georgia, United States.
In conclusion, the availability of a culture isolate of this agent will facilitate future studies to determine its biology, epidemiologic significance, vector association, and host range. The Ehrlichia-like agent infecting raccoons joins a growing list of tick-borne agents cultivable in tick cells.
PMID: 17867909
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
posted
We have SO MANY raccoons living on our property- about 8 or 9- they open the trash cans and make messes!!! They eat tadpoles if we ever get them as pets!!!!!!!!!!!! And now- THIS! Foul beasts!! *************************************************
Detection of Ehrlichia spp. in raccoons (Procyon lotor) from Georgia.
Dugan VG, Gaydos JK, Stallknecht DE, Little SE, Beall AD, Mead DG, Hurd CC, Davidson WR. Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study and Department of Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-4393, USA. [email protected]
Raccoons (Procyonis lotor) and opossums (Didelphis virginianus) acquired from six contiguous counties in the Piedmont physiographic region of Georgia were investigated for their potential role in the epidemiology of ehrlichial and anaplasmal species.
Serum was tested by indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) assay for the presence of antibodies reactive to Ehrlichia chaffeensis, E. canis, and Anaplasma phagocytophilum (HGA agent).
Nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was used to test whole blood or white blood cell preparations for the presence of Ehrlichia and Anaplasma spp. 16S rRNA (rDNA) gene fragments.
In addition, ticks were collected from these animals and identified.
Twenty-three of 60 raccoons (38.3%) had E. chaffeensis-reactive antibodies, 13 of 60 raccoons (21.7%) had E. canis-reactive antibodies, and one of 60 raccoons (1.7%) had A. phagocytophilum- reactive antibodies.
A sequence confirmed E. canis product was obtained from one of 60 raccoons and a novel Ehrlichia-like 16S rDNA sequence was detected in 32 of 60 raccoons.
This novel sequence was most closely related to an Ehrlichia-like organism identified from Ixodes ticks and rodents in Asia and Europe. Raccoons were PCR negative for E. chaffeensis and E. ewingii DNA.
Five tick species, including Dermacentor variabilis, Amblyomma americanum, Ixodes texanus, I. cookei, and I. scapularis, were identified from raccoons and represent potential vectors for the ehrlichiae detected.
Opossums (n = 17) were free of ticks and negative on all IFA and PCR assays.
This study suggests that raccoons are potentially involved in the epidemiology of multiple ehrlichial organisms with known or potential public health and veterinary implications.
PMID: 16011433
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
tailz
Unregistered
posted
Personally, I like raccoons. It's the microwaves that are causing microorganisms to proliferate. Let's kill those instead.
IP: Logged |
charlie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 25
posted
opossums also clean up dead stuff you don't want around and eat rats if they can catch them...there's also a theory that they don't get rabies (I don't know if this is an urban legend or something)
Raccoons are cute and that's about all the usefulness they have. Usually their destructiveness outweighs the cute.
Charlie
Posts: 2804 | From Texas | Registered: Oct 2000
| IP: Logged |
Geneal
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10375
posted
Dear Charlie and all,
Urban legend to be sure. Any mammal can get rabies.
However, the likelyhood of possums with rabies is less likely than other mammals.
I too have multiple possums/racoons and armadillos in our area.
Since I no longer have cats and don't feed them outside, this has reduced the number coming
Into what is left of our house (open side).
Racoons are cute.....but vicious!
I've seen a grown racoon face down 6 of my big dogs and win!
As for them eating mice and stuff-Yuck!!!
Gosh, between the deer, the rodents and now the other wildlife in our area,
It is no wonder that we have such a strangely high incidence of Lyme and/or co-infections.
Hugs,
Geneal
Posts: 6250 | From Louisiana | Registered: Oct 2006
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic