The first discovery of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus in Taiwan

Abstract

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), an emerging tick-borne zoonosis, has been rapidly spread in many Asian counties since 2010, which raises the great concern in East Asia. Nevertheless, the infection status of SFTS in Taiwan remains unclear. To investigate the existence of SFTSV in Taiwan, a total of 151 serum samples collected from 31 sheep, 63 bovine and 57 dogs were enrolled this study. Furthermore, 360 adult female Rhipicephalus microplus were also included. One-step RT-nested PCR and IgG ELISA were conducted to test SFTSV specific RNA and antibodies, respectively. The result provided the first evidence of the existence of SFTSV RNA and antibodies in ruminants and ticks in Taiwan.

Keywords: bovine; first discovery in Taiwan; public health; severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus; sheep; ticks.

Figure 1.

Phylogenetic analysis of the partial S segment of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus identified in Taiwan. In total, of those 21 positive samples, 5 distinct sequences of partial S gene were identified from each species of animals in this study. The Nucleotide sequences of the local isolate indicated as a black circle. Other representative viral strains were presented with their accession numbers and also the host and country of isolation. The evolutionary history was inferred using the maximum-likelihood method, based on the Kimura 2-parameter model (1000 bootstrap replicates). The percentage of trees in which associated taxa clustered is shown next to the branches. Scale bar indicates nucleotide substitutions per position.