Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome in Cats and Its Prevalence among Veterinarian Staff Members in Nagasaki, Japan.
Viruses
; 13(6)2021 06 14.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34198717
ABSTRACT
In this study, we investigated severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) virus (SFTSV) infection in cats in Nagasaki, Japan. In total, 44 of 133 (33.1%) cats with suspected SFTS were confirmed to be infected with SFTSV. Phylogenetic analyses of SFTSV isolates from cats indicated that the main genotype in Nagasaki was J1 and that unique reassortant strains with J2 (S segment) and unclassified genotypes (M and L segments) were also present. There were no significant differences in virus growth in cell cultures or fatality in SFTSV-infected mice between the SFTSV strains that were isolated from recovered and fatal cat cases. Remarkably, SFTSV RNAs were detected in the swabs from cats, indicating that the body fluids contain SFTSV. To evaluate the risk of SFTSV infection when providing animal care, we further examined the seroprevalence of SFTSV infection in veterinarian staff members; 3 of 71 (4.2%) were seropositive for SFTSV-specific antibodies. Our results provide useful information on the possibility of using cats as sentinel animals and raised concerns of the zoonotic risk of catching SFTSV from animals.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Cat Diseases
/
Phlebovirus
/
Veterinarians
/
Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome
Type of study:
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Animals
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
En
Journal:
Viruses
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: