README file
Data Set Title: “Dataset of wild animals from Northern Italy tested for Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Anaplasma platys and Ehrlichia canis DNA detection ”
Data Set Authors: 
Veronica Facile (Department of Veterinary Medical Science, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna); 
Andrea Balboni (Department of Veterinary Medical Science, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna);
Martina Magliocca (Department of Veterinary Medical Science, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna);
Roberta Taddei (Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna (IZSLER), section of Bologna, Italy);
Giulia Maioli (Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna (IZSLER), section of Bologna, Italy);
Mara Battilani (Department of Veterinary Medical Science, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna);
Data Set Contact Persons: Veronica Facile (Department of Veterinary Medical Science, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna), email: veronica.facile2@unibo.it; Andrea Balboni (Department of Veterinary Medical Science, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna), email: a.balboni@unibo.it; Mara Battilani (Department of Veterinary Medical Science, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna), email: mara.battilani@unibo.it
Data Set License: this data set is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 
Publication Year: 2026
Project Info: INF-ACT (One Health Basic and Translational Research Actions addressing Unmet Needs on Emerging Infectious Diseases), funded by European Union, NextGenerationEU-MUR PNRR Partnership initiative on Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme (PNRR, Missione 4 Componente 2 - Investimento 1.3,). Project number PE00000007, CUP ID B13C22002440006; https://www.inf-act.it/
Data set Contents
The data set consists of:
 •	1 tabular qualitative file in .xlsx format
INF-ACT_WP2-5_T2-5-1_DatasetMultiplexAnaplasma.xlsx
 •	1 readme file in .rtf format
INF-ACT_WP2-5_T2-5-1_ DatasetMultiplexAnaplasma_README.rtf
Data set Documentation
Abstract
The dataset contains period of sampling, geographical location, taxonomy and diagnostic data of a wildlife population of 1,575 individuals collected from June 2023 to May 2024 in the Emilia-Romagna region and tested for the presence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Anaplasma platys and Ehrlichia canis DNA at the Department of Veterinary Medical Science of the University of Bologna.
Content of the file 
file INF-ACT_WP2-5_T2-5-1_DatasetMultiplexAnaplasma.xlsx contains period of sampling, geographical location, taxonomy and diagnostic data of a wildlife population of 1,575 individuals collected from June 2023 to May 2024 in the Emilia-Romagna region and tested for the presence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Anaplasma platys and Ehrlichia canis DNA at the Department of Veterinary Medical Science of the University of Bologna. Specifically, information about the date, month and season of sampling; as well as the province and municipality, together with order, family and species of the included animals, multiplex qPCR, sequencing and phylogeny results are indicated for each animal tested. 
Methodologies 
The multiplex real-time PCR (polymerase chain reaction) used in this study to screening the animal population was developed and validated within the study itself. Primers and probes reported by Courtney et al. (2004), and Huggins et al. (2021) were slightly modified in order to be able to multiplex them in a single reaction. PCR proposed by Barber et al. (2010) was used to amplify a fragment of around 700 bp on the groEL gene of Anaplasmataceae, while primers designed in this study were used to amplify a fragment of around 1000 bp of the groEL gene of Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Amplicons of the expected size obtained with all the qualitative PCR assays carried out in this study were sequenced by Sanger method using both forward and reverse primers.