Skip to main content

Prevalence and Phylogenetic Analysis of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus in Ticks from Different Ecosystems in Xinjiang, China

Virologica Sinica volume 33, pages 67–73 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

The Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), a member of the genus Orthonairovirus and family Nairoviridae, is transmitted by ticks and causes severe hemorrhagic disease in humans. To study the epidemiology of CCHFV in different ecosystems in Xinjiang, China, a total of 58,932 ticks were collected from Tarim Basin, Junggar Basin, Tianshan Mountain, and Altai Mountain from 2014 to 2017. Hyalomma asiaticum asiaticum was the dominant tick species in Tarim and Junggar basins, whereas Dermacentor nuttalli and Hyalomma detritum were found in Tianshan Mountain and Altai Mountain, respectively. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction of the CCHFV small (S) genome segment was used for the molecular detection. The CCHFV-positive percentage was 5.26%, 6.85%, 1.94%, and 5.56% in Tarim Basin, Junggar Basin, Tianshan Mountain, and Altai Mountain, respectively. Sequences of the S segment were used for phylogenetic analysis and the results showed that the newly identified CCHFV strains belonged to two clades. Our study confirms that H. asiaticum asiaticum is the major vector of CCHFV in desert habitats which is consistent with previous studies, and also suggests that H. detritum and D. nuttalli are emerging vectors for CCHFV in Xinjiang. Moreover, this study reports the presence of CCHFV in the mountain habitat of Xinjiang for the first time, suggesting that future surveillance of CCHFV should also include mountainous areas.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

References

  • Bao C, Guo X, Qi X, Hu J, Zhou M, Varma JK, Cui L, Yang H, Jiao Y, Klena JD (2011) A family cluster of infections by a newly recognized bunyavirus in Eastern China, 2007: further evidence of person-to-person transmission. Clin Infect Dis 53:1208–1214

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Calisher CH, Goodpasture HC (1975) Human infection with Bhanja virus. Am J Trop Med Hyg 24:1040–1042

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dai X, Muhtar Feng CH, Sun SR, Tai XP, Wang XH, Meng WW, Zhang YJ (2006) Investigation of ticks and hosts infection in Xinjiang hemorrhagic fever in Tarim Basin. Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi 27:1048–1052. (in Chinese)

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ergonul O, Celikbas A, Baykam N, Eren S, Dokuzoguz B (2006) Analysis of risk-factors among patients with Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus infection: severity criteria revisited. Clin Microbiol Infect 12:551–554

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Feng CH, Bai XH, Liu HB (1991) The discovery of the natural foci of the Xinjiang hemorrhagic fever virus in the southern margin of the Junggar basin, Xinjiang. Prev Control Bull Dis (China) 1:52–55. (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo R, Shen S, Zhang YJ, Shi J, Su ZY, Liu D, Liu J, Yang J, Wang Q, Hu ZH (2017) A new strain of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus isolated from Xinjiang, China. Virol Sin 32:80–88

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hall TA (1999) BioEdit: a user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. Nucl Acids Symp Ser 41:95–98

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hewson R, Chamberlain J, Mioulet V, Lloyd G, Jamil B, Hasan R, Gmyl A, Gmyl L, Smirnova SE, Lukashev A (2004) Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus: sequence analysis of the small RNA segments from a collection of viruses world wide. Virus Res 102:185–189

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hoogstraal H (1979) The epidemiology of tick-borne Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in Asia, Europe, and Africa. J Med Entomol 15:307–317

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kou C, Duan XM, Zhang YJ, Sun SR (2016) Status on arbovirus investigation in Xinjiang, China. Chin J Zoonoses 32:301–305. (in Chinese)

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lani R, Mohd NF, Hassan H, Yaghoobi R, Chang LY, Abubakar S, Zandi K (2015) First report on the seroprevalence of the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus, a tick-borne virus, in Malaysia’s Orang Asli population. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 19:461–466

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ma B, Hang C, Papa A (2001) Sequencing and comparative analysis of the complete glycoprotein gene of three Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus Chinese isolates. Zhonghua Shi Yan He Lin Chuang Bing Du Xue Za Zhi 15:105–111. (in Chinese)

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Messina JP, Pigott DM, Golding N, Duda KA, Brownstein JS, Weiss DJ, Gibson H, Robinson TP, Gilbert M, William R (2015) The global distribution of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 109:503–513

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Orkun O, Karaer Z, Çakmak A, Nalbantoğlu S (2017) Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus in ticks in Turkey: a broad range tick surveillance study. Infect Genet Evol 52:59–66

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Paragas J, Whitehouse CA, Endy TP, Bray M (2004) A simple assay for determining antiviral activity against Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus. Antiviral Res 62:21–25

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sadegh C, Saeid B, Ali SM, Ehsan M, Tahmineh J, Sahar K, Norbert N, Fooks AR, Nariman SH (2016) Genetic diversity of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus strains from Iran. J Arthropod Borne Dis 10:127–140

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun SR, Meng WW, Zhang YJ, Wang XH, Azati Dai X, Ma J, Zhang FC (2006) Molecular analysis on the S gene of three Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus strains in China. Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi 27:880–883. (in Chinese)

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sun SR, Dai X, Aishan M, Wang XH, Meng WW, Feng CH, Zhang FC, Hang CS, Hu ZH, Zhang YJ (2009) Epidemiology and phylogenetic analysis of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever viruses in Xinjiang, China. J Clin Microbiol 47:2536–2543

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sun SR, Meng WR, Zhang YJ (2011) Progress on the study of biological characteristic of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi 32:727–732

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tamura K, Stecher G, Peterson D, Filipski A, Kumar S (2013) MEGA6: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 6.0. Mol Biol Evol 30:2725–2729

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Turell MJ (2007) Role of ticks in the transmission of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus. In: Ergonul O, Whitehouse CA (eds) Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 43–154

  • Yu X, Ye RY, Gong ZD (1997) Tick fauna of Xinjiang. Xinjiang science and Technology Press, Xinjiang, pp 20–22. (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Yu X, Dai X, Zhang YJ (2006) Relationship between ticks and diseases in Tarim Basin and its adjacent areas in Xinjiang. Chin J Vector Bio Control 17:501–503. (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2013FY113500), the grants from the National Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81460303, 81760365), and Funded by the Open Research Fund Program of the State Key Laboratory of Virology of China (No. 2015IOV003).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Biological Resources and Genetic Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, China

    Abulimiti Moming, Chenchen Chang & Surong Sun

  2. Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, 830001, China

    Xihong Yue, Cheng Wang, Tao Luo, Rong Guo & Yujiang Zhang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Shu Shen, Yanfang Zhang, Zhihong Hu & Fei Deng

Authors
  1. Abulimiti Moming
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xihong Yue
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Shu Shen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Chenchen Chang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Cheng Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Tao Luo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Yanfang Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Rong Guo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Zhihong Hu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Yujiang Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Fei Deng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Surong Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

SRS, FD, YJZ and ZHH designed the experiments. AM and CCC carried out the experiments. YJZ, XHY, TL and CW collected the samples. RG, SS and YFZ provided experimental and sequence analysis support. SRS and YJZ analyzed the data. AM and SRS wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript for submission.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yujiang Zhang, Fei Deng or Surong Sun.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Animal and Human Rights Statement

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (PDF 72 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Moming, A., Yue, X., Shen, S. et al. Prevalence and Phylogenetic Analysis of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus in Ticks from Different Ecosystems in Xinjiang, China. Virol. Sin. 33, 67–73 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12250-018-0016-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12250-018-0016-3

Keywords

  • Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV)
  • Prevalence
  • Homology
  • Tick
  • Ecosystems
  • Xinjiang