OBJECTIVETo study the existence of natural foci of Spotted Fever in Ninghua, Fujian province.

METHODSUsing DNA polymerase chain reaction and restriction endonuclease fragment length polymorphism analysis (PCR/RFLP) to detect spotted fever group rickettsiae (SFGR) in ticks and rodents.

RESULTSIt was found that H. wellingtoni, H. yeni, and Dermacentor auratus were infected with Rickettsia sibirica; the DNA fragments were cloned, the PCR products from isolated strain NH-97 were antigenically and genotypically identical to Rickettsia sibirica. Rattus flavipectus were found infected with R. conorii. One of the sequeuce analysis showed that the DNA sequence was different from other SFGR and close to R. japanic.

CONCLUSIONNatural foci of R. sibirica, R. sibrica, R. japanic and R.conorii are found in Ninghua, Fujian province of China.

Animals ; Boutonneuse Fever ; microbiology ; China ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; methods ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Rats ; Rickettsia ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Rodentia ; microbiology ; Ticks ; microbiology