No abstract available.
Animals ; Hantavirus* ; Korea* ; Murinae*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Hantavirus* ; Korea* ; Murinae*

No Abstract Available.
Animals ; Hantavirus* ; Indonesia* ; Murinae* ; Thailand*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Borrelia burgdorferi* ; Borrelia* ; Murinae*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Chiroptera* ; Korea* ; Murinae* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Puumala virus

Apodemus agrarius, which accounts for three-fourths of the wild rodents, mainly inhabits in cultivated fields of Korea. Apodemus peninsulae and Eothenomys regulus are the second and third dominant species, respectively. Soochong virus (SOOV) from A. peninsulae and Puumala-related Muju virus (MUJV) from E. regulus were isolated in 1997 and 1998 in Korea, respectively. But serological characterizations of SOOV and MUJV were not identified clearly. Thus, in order to determine the serotypic classification, simultaneous cross-indirect immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) assay and cross-plaque reduction neutralization (PRN) test against four different hantaviruses were conducted with sera from 17 A. agrarius, 19 A. peninsulae, and 8 E. regulus strains. IFA titers of sera from A. agrarius and A. peninsulae were the highest to Hantaan virus (HTNV) and SOOV, respectively. However, most sera showed similar IFA titers to Seoul virus (SEOV). Therefore it was difficult to do serotyping using the sera from A. agrarius and A. peninsulae by IFA. In case of sera of E. regulus, IFA titers to Puumala virus (PUUV) were higher than HTNV, SOOV and SEOV. Cross-PRN result of A. agrarius to HTNV, SOOV, SEOV and PUUV was 6,890, 5,120, 110 and 30, respectively. In case of A. peninsulae, the mean PRN titer was the highest to SOOV (1:6,820) and those to HTNV, SEOV and PUUV were 1,580, 100 and 30, respectively. The mean PRN titers of E. regulus to HTNV, SOOV, SEOV and PUUV were 70, 10, 80 and 640. SOOV and MUJV could be distinguished from HTNV and SEOV by cross-PRNT. These results demonstrate that SOOV and MUJV could be classified as new serotype of hantavirus.
Animals ; Classification ; Hantaan virus ; Hantavirus* ; Korea ; Murinae ; Puumala virus ; Rodentia ; Seoul virus ; Serotyping

Twenty isolates of Hantavirus were isolated from patients and reserovirs from 1988 to 1994 in Korea. Isolation rate was 1.9% (10/538) in patients, 6.2% (5/81) in Apodemus sp., 2.6% (1/38) in Rattus sp. and 0.6% (4/677) in bats. Reciprocal mean IFA titers ranged from 27.5 to 1,024 at the specimen collection. According to the growth rate and reaching peak titer of infectivity, the isolates were grouped as rapid, intermediate, and slow growing groups. All isolates were confirmed as Hantaan type by the nested RT-PCR on the Gl region of the M segment. Comparison of nucleotide sequence (Nt: 2101 - Nt: 2280) of the G2 region revealed that the sequence homology between Hantaan 76/118 virus and the isolates was more than 90%. Several nucleotide positions of the isolates showed high variation. The variation rate of patientisolates was about one-half when compared with that of rodentisolates. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis Hantaan viruses isolated were divided into two genogroups. These results indicate that Hantaan virus is highly dominant serotype in Korea and the virologic property and genogroup are not correlated.
Animals ; Base Sequence ; Chiroptera ; Genotype ; Hantaan virus* ; Hantavirus ; Humans ; Korea* ; Murinae ; Rats ; Sequence Homology ; Specimen Handling

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to determine the seropositivity for rickettsial infection among wild rodents captured in farms of Kyunggi province and in mountains of Kangwon province in Korea. METHODS: A total of 513 wild rodents of 5 species were captured in 1997~1998. Serological evidence for rickettsial infection was obtained using Orientia tsutsugamushi antigens by indirect immunofluorescent antibody technique(IFA). RESULTS: 168 Apodemus agrarius, 35 Microtus fortis, 3 Micromis minutus and 2 Eothenomys regulus were captured in Kyunggi province, of which 32 Apodemusagrarius, 4 Microtus fortis, 1 Micromis minutus were IF antibody positive against O. tsutsugamushi. 196 Apodemus agrarius, 77 Apodemus peninsulae and 29 Eothenomys regulus were captured in Kangwon province, of which 4 Apodemus agrarius and 5 Apodemus peninsulae were positive. CONCLUSION: Seropositivity rate against O. tsutsugamushi of wild rodents captured in Kyunggi and Kangwon provinces were 19.6% and 3.0% by IFA tests, respectively.
Animals ; Arvicolinae ; Gangwon-do* ; Gyeonggi-do* ; Korea* ; Murinae ; Orientia tsutsugamushi ; Rodentia*

Eleven Borrelia afzelii strains, isolated from Ixodes nipponensis and Apodemus agrarius in Korea, were characterized by groEL gene analysis. Results from previous studies suggested that the groEL gene, which encodes the 60-kDa heat shock protein GroEL, was useful for the differentiation of B. burgdorferi sensu lato. The B. afzelii isolates could be divided into two groups by the phylogenetic tree constructed by UPGMA method and Tsp509 I PCR-RFLP analysis. The result suggested that the groEL gene is useful for identification and characterization of B. burgdorferi sensu lato though a short DNA fragment (310 bp) of the gene was sequenced and compared each other, and that Korean B. afzelii strains are heterogeneous genotypically.
Animals ; Borrelia burgdorferi Group* ; Borrelia* ; DNA ; Heat-Shock Proteins ; Ixodes ; Korea* ; Murinae ; Population Characteristics

Eleven Borrelia afzelii strains, isolated from Ixodes nipponensis and Apodemus agrarius in Korea, were characterized by groEL gene analysis. Results from previous studies suggested that the groEL gene, which encodes the 60-kDa heat shock protein GroEL, was useful for the differentiation of B. burgdorferi sensu lato. The B. afzelii isolates could be divided into two groups by the phylogenetic tree constructed by UPGMA method and Tsp509 I PCR-RFLP analysis. The result suggested that the groEL gene is useful for identification and characterization of B. burgdorferi sensu lato though a short DNA fragment (310 bp) of the gene was sequenced and compared each other, and that Korean B. afzelii strains are heterogeneous genotypically.
Animals ; Borrelia burgdorferi Group* ; Borrelia* ; DNA ; Heat-Shock Proteins ; Ixodes ; Korea* ; Murinae ; Population Characteristics