title: [Study on the dynamic prevalence of serum antibody against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus in employees from wild animal market in Guangzhou].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the dynamic trend of specific antibody against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV in serum collected at various periods among employees in Guangzhou Xinyuan animal market.
  
  
  METHODS
  Volunteers from employees of the animal market were recruited and their serum specific antibody against SARS-CoV were determined by enzyme linked immunesorbent assay (ELISA) method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Positive SARS-CoV specific IgG antibody was found 25.61% (n = 328), 13.03% (n = 238), 12.59% (n = 135), 5.04% (n = 139) and 9.43% (n = 53) among volunteers, which were sampled in May 2003, Dec. 2003, Jan. 2004, July 2004 and June 2005 respectively. No specific IgM antibody was found in all of those samples. Among 129 samples which were tested twice or more, 97 were all negative, 18 all positive, 13 changed from positive to negative but only one sample from negative to positive. When the volunteers were divided by the duration of their working experiences as short-term or long-term, those who had worked at animal market for less than or more then 6 months when being tested, the positive rate for long-term employees were relatively constant, however, all of the persons employed after January 2004, when the palm civets and raccoon dogs were culled from the market, were tested negative.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of specific antibody against SARS-CoV in employees of the animal market were somehow related with the presence or absence of palm civet. No serum was tested positive for persons who were employed after palm civets and raccoon dogs were culled from market. This data indicated that the SARS-CoV might have been from the palm civets and raccoon dog, and the animal market seemed to serve as one of the sources of infection.
authors.affiliation: Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou 510080, China.
authors.forename: Hui-Fang
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Rui-Heng
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Jian-Guo
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Zhou-Bin
authors.initials: ZB
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Huai-Qi
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Jing
authors.forename: Hui-Ming
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Rong-Tong
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Cai-Yun
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Yu-Teng
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Xiao-Zhong
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D003132:Commerce; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D046031:Raccoon Dogs / Q000821:virology; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus / Q000276:immunology*; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; D045949:Viverridae / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral