Diseases caused by tick-transmitted pathogens including bacteria, viruses, and protozoa are of veterinary and medical importance, especially in tropical and subtropical regions including Turkey. Hence, molecular surveillance of tick-borne diseases will improve the understanding of their distribution towards effective control. This study aimed to investigate the presence and perform molecular characterization of Babesia sp., Theileria sp., Anaplasma sp., Ehrlichia sp., and Rickettsia sp. in tick species collected from cattle in five provinces of Turkey. A total of 277 adult ticks (males and females) were collected. After microscopic identification, tick pools were generated according to tick species, host animal, and sampling sites prior to DNA extraction. Molecular identification of the tick species was conducted through PCR assays. Out of 90 DNA pools, 57.8% (52/90) were detected to harbor at least 1 pathogen. The most frequently-detected pathogens were Babesia bovis, with a minimum detection rate of 7.9%, followed by Ehrlichia sp. (7.2%), Theileria annulata (5.8%), Coxiella sp. (3.3%), Anaplasma marginale (2.5%), Rickettsia sp. (2.5%), and B. occultans (0.7%). Rickettsia sp. identified in this study include Candidatus Rickettsia barbariae, R. aeschlimannii, and Rickettsia sp. Chad. All sequences obtained from this study showed 99.05–100% nucleotide identity with those deposited in GenBank (query cover range: 89–100%). This is the first molecular detection of Rickettsia sp. Chad, a variant of Astrakhan fever rickettsia, in Turkey. Results from this survey provide a reference for the distribution of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in cattle and expand the knowledge of tick-borne diseases in Turkey.

Antisperm antibodies potentially inhibit sperm functions causing the sterility in humans and experimentally treated animals. However, there is no information about antisperm antibodies emerging spontaneously in wildlife. In this study, we searched for the sperm-reactive antibodies, spontaneously produced in wild sika deer (Cervus nippon), and identified the sperm antigens. We collected 529 fecal masses of sika deer in Japanese cities, from which we extracted the mucosal antibodies to test them for reactivities to deer sperm proteins by ELISA. Two of the extracts contained IgAs that were highly reactive to the sperm proteins. The molecular weights of the active IgAs, partially purified by DEAE-sephadex A-50, were estimated at more than 100 kDa, suggesting that the IgAs evaded drastic digestion in the gastrointestinal tract. Two-dimensional electrophoresis and immunoblotting detected three major antigens, and the following LC-MS/MS analysis identified them as alpha-enolase, phosphoglycerate kinase 2 and acrosin-binding protein. The antibodies were cross-reactive to a recombinant human acrosin-binding protein. To our knowledge, this is the first research to find that the sperm-reactive antibodies are produced spontaneously in wildlife and they recognize a common antigen found in humans.