Study on the dynamic prevalence of serum antibody against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus in employees from wild animal market in Guangzhou / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the dynamic trend of specific antibody against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV in serum collected at various periods among employees in Guangzhou Xinyuan animal market.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Volunteers from employees of the animal market were recruited and their serum specific antibody against SARS-CoV were determined by enzyme linked immunesorbent assay (ELISA) method.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Positive SARS-CoV specific IgG antibody was found 25.61% (n = 328), 13.03% (n = 238), 12.59% (n = 135), 5.04% (n = 139) and 9.43% (n = 53) among volunteers, which were sampled in May 2003, Dec. 2003, Jan. 2004, July 2004 and June 2005 respectively. No specific IgM antibody was found in all of those samples. Among 129 samples which were tested twice or more, 97 were all negative, 18 all positive, 13 changed from positive to negative but only one sample from negative to positive. When the volunteers were divided by the duration of their working experiences as short-term or long-term, those who had worked at animal market for less than or more then 6 months when being tested, the positive rate for long-term employees were relatively constant, however, all of the persons employed after January 2004, when the palm civets and raccoon dogs were culled from the market, were tested negative.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The prevalence of specific antibody against SARS-CoV in employees of the animal market were somehow related with the presence or absence of palm civet. No serum was tested positive for persons who were employed after palm civets and raccoon dogs were culled from market. This data indicated that the SARS-CoV might have been from the palm civets and raccoon dog, and the animal market seemed to serve as one of the sources of infection.</p>

Analysis on the risk factors of severe acute respiratory syndromes coronavirus infection in workers from animal markets / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the possible risk factors of severe acute respiratory syndromes coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infection in workers from animal markets.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Self-designed questionnaires were used and serum samples were tested. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the data.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Results from simple factor logistic regression analysis showed that jobs which dealing with domestic livestock, wild livestock, wild animals, aquatics were related to risk factors of SARS-CoV infection. Results from multifactor logistic regression analysis showed that jobs that dealing with wild livestock and poultry were important risk factors with OR 12.28 and 0.41.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Job that dealing with palm civets was the main risk factor of SARS-CoV infection in animal market workers.</p>

An epidemiologic investigation on infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus in wild animals traders in Guangzhou / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate status of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronovirus (SARS-CoV) in traders of wild animals wholesale markets in Guangzhou.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Serum antibody against SARS-CoV IgG was determined cross-sectionally and symptoms of respiratory infection were investigated retrospectively for part of traders of three wholesale markets for wild animals in Guangzhou.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Overall rate of infection with SARS-CoV in 635 traders was 16.69%, varying in three different markets. Infection rate in market A mainly engaging in wild animals ranked the highest of 25.61%, significantly higher than that in markets B and C engaging in domestic fowls and snakes. Infection rate in traders only engaging in civet cats was 58.54%, significantly higher than that in traders engaging in snakes only (9.46%). In market A, infection rate varied in different persons, 59.34%, 20.59%, 16.00%, 15.22%, 10.40% and 9.68% in traders engaging in wild animals, managers, children of the traders, traders engaging in domestic fowls, traders engaging in snakes, and traders engaging in frozen food, respectively, in a decreasing pattern as their contact opportunities. During the period of SARS epidemic, detection rate of SARS-CoV antibody in people with symptoms of acute respiratory infection was higher (30.70%) than that in those without such symptoms (20.08%). Prevalence of symptoms of acute upper respiratory infection in people with positive antibody against SARS-CoV was higher (49.28%) than that in those with negative antibody (30.35%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Infection with SARS-CoV in traders of animal markets possibly related to their direct exposure to wild animals, particularly to civet cats. During the period of SARS epidemic, some of the traders did infect with SARS-CoV, but they were neglected due to clinically inapparent manifestations.</p>