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First detection of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus in the tick species Haemaphysalis concinna in Shandong Province, China

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to detect severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) infection using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification in adult Haemaphysalis concinna ticks. A total of 72 adult H. concinna ticks were obtained from 35 goats, three adult H. concinna ticks (4.17 %) collected from two goats were found to be infected with SFTSV via PCR assay. Sequence analysis showed that the partial segment M glycoprotein gene of SFTSV was about 500 bases long by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and that the PCR products from the samples had an identical sequence (KP714259). With regard to the phylogenetic analysis, the Nei-Gojobri (Kimura 2-parameter) method was used to construct the phylogenetic trees. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the obtained sequence closely resembled SFTSV strain from Zhejiang Province (KC189856) and belonged to the same clade. The similarity of these strains was up to 96.62 % (only differing by 17 bases). In addition, phylogenetic analysis also indicated that the sequence obtained from adult H. concinna ticks was most closely related to the sequence isolated from Haemaphysalis longicornis (KF781498) with 97.22 % similarity (differing only by 4 bases) and belonged to the same clade.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Research Center for Animal Disease Control Engineering Shandong Province, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, 271018, China

      Kai Meng, Wenjing Sun, Ziqiang Cheng, Huijun Guo & Jianzhu Liu

    2. Sino-German Cooperative Research Centre for Zoonosis of Animal Origin of Shandong Province, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, 271018, China

      Tongjie Chai

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    1. Kai Meng
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    2. Wenjing Sun
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    3. Ziqiang Cheng
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    4. Huijun Guo
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    5. Jianzhu Liu
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    6. Tongjie Chai
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    Corresponding authors

    Correspondence to Jianzhu Liu or Tongjie Chai.

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    Kai Meng and Wenjing Sun contributed equally to this work.

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    Meng, K., Sun, W., Cheng, Z. et al. First detection of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus in the tick species Haemaphysalis concinna in Shandong Province, China. Parasitol Res 114, 4703–4707 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4718-2

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4718-2

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