ABSTRACT
An investigation of coronavirus (CoV) and hepatitis E virus (HEV) in rodents was performed to understand CoV and HEV infection of rodents in Dali City, Yunnan Province. Rodent samples were obtained in the four towns of Dali city through traps from August 2020 to August 2021. A total of 76 rodents belonging to six species and five genera were captured: Rattus tanezumi, Rattus norvegicus, Apodemus chevrieri, Eothenomys miletus, Niviventer fulvescens, and Mus Pahari. Detection of CoV and HEV was performed by nested-PCR. The infection rate of CoV was 40.74% (11/27) and 2.38% (1/42) in R. norvegicus and R. tanezumi, respectively. The infection rate of HEV was 14.81% (4/27) and 2.38% (1/42) in R. norvegicus and R. tanezumi, respectively. Co-infection with CoV and HEV was detected in two R. norvegicus, with a co-infection rate of 7.41% (2/27). A Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) search was performed on partial RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) sequences of CoV and HEV. Eleven strains from R. norvegicus were a-CoV, and matched best to strain KY370050 from Rattus losea (Fujian, China), with 99.73% to 99.74% nucleotide (nt) sequency identity. One strain was ss-CoV from R. tanezumi, which displayed 98.21% nt sequence identity with strain MT820632 from Bandicota indica (Yunnan, China). Five strains from R. norvegicus were all HEV-C, and showed 95.87% to 96.21% sequence similarity to strain MN450853 from a patient in Hong Kong, China. In conclusion, CoV and HEV infections are present in rodents in Dali City. Because the host animals of the two viruses are closely related to humans, surveillance and investigations of related viruses should be strengthened.
ABSTRACT
Since the International Health Regulations National Focal Point for the United Kingdom alerted the WHO of ten cases of acute severe hepatitis of unknown etiology in children on April 5, 2022, relevant cases have been reported worldwide. These patients had acute hepatitis (negative for hepatitis viruses A-E) and elevated aminotransferase (AST) or alanine aminase (ALT) exceeding 500 U/L. Furthermore, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and/or adenovirus type F41 have been detected in some cases. This unknown hepatitis has been hypothesized to be induced by a viral reservoir of novel coronavirus superantigen, which repeatedly stimulates the intestines and leads to a multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which causes immune abnormalities in the presence of human adenovirus. Although this hypothesis has not been confirmed by any in vivo experimental or clinical studies, it may provide ideas for possible intervention strategies.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To gather information on the research status and the hot spots of zoonosis and zoonotic microorganisms worldwide, and to provide references for the prevention and control of zoonotic diseases in China. Method: COOC 12.6 and Citespace 5.8 R1 software were used to carry out frequency statistics, co-occurrence analysis, cluster analysis, timeline analysis and burst analysis on the keywords associated with zoonosis and zoonotic microorganisms in PubMed database. Result: According to the keywords frequency statistics and co-occurrence analysis results from the year of 2001 to 2021 in pubMed database, the zoonosis and zoonotic microorganisms arousing high international attentions were classified into the following three categories: the first category was commonly observed zoonotic microorganisms such as Brucella, hepatitis E virus, Streptococcus, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Salmonella, to which continuous public attentions were still needed to be paid;the second category was the zoonotic microorganisms worldwide concerned in recent years such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and influenza A virus, which were worthy of more in-depth research to control the spread of these diseases as soon as possible;the third category was the zoonosis that had massively prevailed in specific regions abroad such as Q fever and middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS), and these diseases were expected to be noticed in terms of imported risks to avoid their outbreaks in China. In addition to the above mentioned zoonosis and zoonotic microorganisms, some keywords associated with detection and diagnosis such as phylogeny and PCR were also of high interests. The cluster analysis generated a total of 10 clusters, in which the tick-borne infectious disease cluster suggested the role of ticks in the transmission of zoonotic diseases;the results of timeline and burst analysis demonstrated that among the zoonotic microorganisms, the attentions being paid to influenza A virus and SARS-CoV-2 were gradually increasing. At the same time, the detection technology of zoonotic microorganisms was evolving from specific sequence detection to whole genome sequencing. These fields were likely to be the research direction and trend in the future.