Ehrlichia canis

Anaplasmataceae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Bacteria
Phylum:	Proteobacteria
Class:	Alpha Proteobacteria
Order:	Rickettsiales
Family:	Anaplasmataceae
Genus:	Ehrlichia
Binomial name
Ehrlichia canis (Donatien and Lestoquard 1935) Moshkovski 1945

Ehrlichia canis is an obligate, intracellular bacterium that acts as the causative agent of Ehrlichiosis, a disease most commonly affecting canine species. This pathogen is present throughout the United States (but is most prominent in the South), South America, Asia, and Africa. First defined in 1935, E. canis emerged in the United States in 1963 and its presence has since been found in all 48 contiguous United States. Reported primarily in dogs, E. canis has also been documented in felines and humans where it is transferred most commonly via Rhipicephalus sanguineus, the brown dog tick.

The brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, acts as the primary vector of E. canis transferring the pathogen between hosts during blood meals. Dogs, both domestic and wild, act as reservoir hosts for this pathogen and are the primary hosts of brown dog ticks. Brown dog ticks become carriers of the pathogen when they take a blood meal from a rickessemic dog. Stored in the midgut and salivary glands of an infected tick, E. canis is transferred via the saliva of ticks carrying the pathogen to hosts during blood meals. If infected while in the larval stage, the tick retains the pathogen through the next 2 life stages and can inoculate hosts during blood meals in both the nymph and adult stage in transstadial transmission.

Because the vector of E. canis uses canine species as a primary host, this bacteria is most commonly associated with dogs but multiple human cases have been reported. Additionally, some cats have been found to have antibodies to E. canis suggesting that E. canis can occasionally infect cats as well.

...
Wikipedia