| Summary: | Wild large ungulates, like European bison (<i>Bison bonasus</i>) and Eurasian moose (<i>Alces alces</i>), form an important part of the circulation of <i>Anaplasma phagocytophilum</i>, a Gram-negative, intracellular, tick-transmitted bacterium, in the natural environment. Bison and moose tissue samples were subjected to <i>16S</i> rDNA, <i>groEL</i> and <i>ankA</i> partial gene marker amplification with specific primers using various variants of PCR. Out of 42 examined individuals, <i>Anaplasma</i> sp. were detected in 4/13 Eurasian moose (31%) and 7/29 European bison (24%). In addition, 12 <i>groEL</i> and 5 <i>ankA</i> partial gene positive samples were obtained from the examined animals. The phylogenetic analysis of the <i>groEL</i> partial gene classified samples from European bison to ecotype I, and samples from Eurasian moose to ecotype I and II; the analysis of the <i>ankA</i> partial gene assigned the samples to clusters I and IV. This study extends knowledge about <i>A. phagocytophilum</i> in wild large ungulates in Poland. This is the first report about the occurrence of <i>Anaplasma</i> sp. in one of the largest populations of free living European bison in the world. Our findings confirm that strains of <i>A. phagocytophilum</i> from <i>Bison bonasus</i> and <i>Alces alces</i> may constitute a natural reservoir of pathogenic HGA <i>Anaplasma</i> strains.
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