title: Rats (Rattus norvegicus and Rattus losea) harboring Seoul hantavirus in Qingyuan, southern China: a survey during 2011-2013.
abstract: Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a zoonotic disease, which threatens public health and its incidence has increased sharply up to the present time in southern China. A survey of HFRS including in both the natural hosts and humans conducted in Qingyuan, southern China, during 2011-2013 revealed that one, two and seven confirmed cases of HFRS occurred in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. Rodent densities ranged 1.73%-12.2% and Seoul hantavirus was detected by RT-PCR only in Rattus norvegicus and Rattus losea. The positive rate in humans was 0.95% serologically and 0.94% with IIFA in 2011 and 2013, respectively. DNA fragments detected in Rattus norvegicus and Rattus losea were highly homologous with those of Seoul hantavirus HB55 (96.2%) and L99 (95.1%), respectively. Thus HFRS is becoming an emerging and dangerous disease in southern China and it is necessary to further perform molecular characterization of strains isolated from rodents and humans.
authors.forename: Xiaokang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Yuling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Yuanling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: De
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Lijun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Jinyan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D006480:Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D051381:Rats; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D029263:Seoul virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000453:epidemiology*