Seroprevalence of Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus in Small-Animal Veterinarians and Nurses in the Japanese Prefecture with the Highest Case Load
Yumi Kirino,
Keita Ishijima,
Miho Miura,
Taro Nomachi,
Eugene Mazimpaka,
Putu Eka Sudaryatma,
Atsushi Yamanaka,
Ken Maeda,
Takayuki Sugimoto,
Akatsuki Saito,
Hirohisa Mekata,
Tamaki Okabayashi
Affiliations
Yumi Kirino
Center for Animal Disease Control, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan
Keita Ishijima
Department of Veterinary Science, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan
Miho Miura
Department of Microbiology, Miyazaki Prefectural Institute for Public Health and Environment, Miyazaki 889-2155, Japan
Taro Nomachi
Miyazaki Prefectural Miyakonojo Inspection Center, Miyazaki 885-0021, Japan
Eugene Mazimpaka
Graduate School of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan
Putu Eka Sudaryatma
Graduate School of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan
Atsushi Yamanaka
Department of Internal Medicine, Miyazaki Prefectural Miyazaki Hospital, Miyazaki 880-8510, Japan
Ken Maeda
Department of Veterinary Science, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan
Takayuki Sugimoto
Department of Microbiology, Miyazaki Prefectural Institute for Public Health and Environment, Miyazaki 889-2155, Japan
Akatsuki Saito
Center for Animal Disease Control, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan
Hirohisa Mekata
Center for Animal Disease Control, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan
Tamaki Okabayashi
Center for Animal Disease Control, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan
Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) is the causative agent of SFTS, an emerging tick-borne disease in East Asia, and is maintained in enzootic cycles involving ticks and a range of wild animal hosts. Direct transmission of SFTSV from cats and dogs to humans has been identified in Japan, suggesting that veterinarians and veterinary nurses involved in small-animal practice are at occupational risk of SFTSV infection. To characterize this risk, we performed a sero-epidemiological survey in small-animal-practice workers and healthy blood donors in Miyazaki prefecture, which is the prefecture with the highest per capita number of recorded cases of SFTS in Japan. Three small-animal-practice workers were identified as seropositive by ELISA, but one had a negative neutralization-test result and so was finally determined to be seronegative, giving a seropositive rate of 2.2% (2 of 90), which was significantly higher than that in healthy blood donors (0%, 0 of 1000; p < 0.05). The seroprevalence identified here in small-animal-practice workers was slightly higher than that previously reported in other high-risk workers engaged in agriculture and forestry in Japan. Thus, enhancement of small-animal-practice workers’ awareness of biosafety at animal hospitals is necessary for control of SFTSV.
