The aim of the present study was to determine the presence of Anaplasma spp. in hard ticks in the north of Iran. Tick samples were collected from sheep and goats grazing in Savadkooh, Mazandaran province and identified under a stereomicroscope according to identification keys. Salivary glands of the ticks were dissected and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay, followed by partial sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene, was used for the detection and identification of Anaplasma spp. in the DNA extract of the salivary glands. A total of 618 ticks were collected from 122 sheep and goats from Savadkooh. The identified tick specimens belonged to 5 genera and 11 species including Rhipicephalus bursa, Rh. sanguineus, Rh. turanicus, Rh. (Boophilus) annulatus, Haemaphysalis punctata, Ha. concinna, Ha. parva, Ha. inermis, Hyalomma marginatum, Dermacentor marginatus and Ixodes ricinus. Eight of these, including Rh. sanguineus, Rh. bursa, Ha. punctata, Ha. inermis, Ha. concinna, D. marginatus, Rh. turanicus and I. ricinus, were positive for the presence of Anaplasma. All of the sequenced samples showed 99-100 % identity to Anaplasma bovis. The present paper is the first to detect A. bovis in Rh. sanguineus, Rh. bursa, Ha. punctata and D. marginatus in Iran; the highest infection rate of A. bovis in the collected ticks was found in Rh. bursa. This research is also the first report of A. bovis in Ha. inermis in the world.

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