Differential expression of inflammatory and immune response genes in sheep infected with Anaplasma phagocytophilum.. Ovis aries

Anaplasma phagocytophilum is the causative agent of tick-borne fever (TBF) in ruminants and human, equine and canine granulocytic anaplasmosis. A. phagocytophilum modifies host gene expression and immune response. The objective of this work was to analyze differential gene expression in A. phagocytophilum-infected sheep using microarray hybridization and real-time RT-PCR in experimentally and naturally infected animals. Keywords: disease state analysis Overall design: one-month old lambs from an experimental flock without a known history of contact with ticks and tick-borne pathogens were weaned and left uninfected to serve as controls or infected with a pool of blood samples obtained from commercial flocks with a previous history of TBF, located in the Basque Country, Northern Spain.