State Key Laboratory of Virology, School of Health Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Lab Animal Research Center, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China.
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2020 Aug;20(8):580-585. doi: 10.1089/vbz.2019.2589. Epub 2020 Apr 16.
is the causative agent of query fever (Q fever), and distributes broadly in environment. Livestock are identified as main reservoirs, which may infect people through their contaminative urine, feces, milk, and birth products. Wild animals can also be the potential carriers and transmitters of . To understand the geographic distribution and host species of in China, we investigated the prevalence of in hedgehogs () in Hubei Province. Hedgehogs were tested for with PCR targeting three genes (, , and ) followed by multispacer sequence typing (MST). We found that 12.2% (5/41) hedgehogs were PCR positive for . MST revealed presence of two novel genotypes and phylogenetic analysis revealed that the strains were similar to a group of isolates from chronic Q fever patients and mammals. This study showed that are highly prevalent in hedgehogs in Hubei Province in central China, suggesting that hedgehogs may play an important role in the ecology and transmission of to humans because it is captured and used as traditional medicine in China.
是查询热（Q 热）的病原体，广泛分布于环境中。牲畜被确定为主要宿主，它们可能通过其污染的尿液、粪便、牛奶和分娩产品感染人类。野生动物也可能是 的潜在携带者和传播者。为了了解在中国的地理分布和宿主物种，我们调查了湖北省刺猬（）中 的流行情况。使用针对三个基因（、和）的 PCR 对刺猬进行了检测，随后进行多位点序列分型（MST）。我们发现，12.2%（5/41）的刺猬对呈 PCR 阳性。MST 显示存在两种新型基因型，系统发育分析表明，这些菌株与一组来自慢性 Q 热患者和哺乳动物的分离株相似。本研究表明，在中国中部湖北省的刺猬中， 高度流行，这表明刺猬在中国作为传统药物被捕获和使用，可能在的生态学和向人类传播中发挥重要作用。
