[Study on the natural foci of Marmota himalayana plague in Sichuan province].
OBJECTIVE
To explore the existence of natural foci on Marmota himalayana plague in Sichuan province and to provide basis for prevention and control of the disease.


METHODS
Both epidemiological investigation and laboratory tests were used to provide the host animal and fleas of the vectors with Yersinia pestis carriers.


RESULTS
30 species of animals were found to belong to 10 orders. Ochotona curzoniae and M. himalayana were the most common ones while 7 species of the fleas belonged to 7 genera and 3 families. M. himalayana was the main reservoirs while Callopsylla dolabris and Oropsylla silantiewi served as vectors. The 13 Y. pestis were identified from 43 Marmota samples. 8 samples were identified under IHA, with the highest titer of herding-dogs serum as 1:10,240. 19 samples were F1 antigen positive using RIHA and the highest titer of M. himalayana serum was 1:409,600. The major foci was 4545 km2, distributed at Dege county in Sichuan province.


CONCLUSIONS
We have confirmed the existence of natural foci on M. himalayana plague in Sichuan province.
Wang
Li-Mao
LM
Sichuan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chengdu, China.
Luo
Zhi-Danba
ZD
Yue
Qi
Q
Duan
Yong-Jun
YJ
Zhu
Xiao-Ping
XP
Mao
Su-Ling
SL
Liu
Lun-Guang
LG
Wang
Hong
H
Liu
Yi
Y
Xie
Fei
F
Chen
De-Gang
DG
Chen
Kai-Hua
KH
Deng
Bing
B
Kang
Jun-Xing
JX
D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000097:blood; D002681:China; D004197:Disease Reservoirs; D004199:Disease Vectors; D004285:Dogs; D006386:Hemagglutination Tests / Q000662:veterinary; D007303:Insect Vectors; D008392:Marmota / Q000382:microbiology*; D010930:Plague; D005423:Siphonaptera / Q000382:microbiology; D015010:Yersinia pestis / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C086725:caf1 protein, Yersinia pestis