Preliminary epidemiological investigation of lyme disease in Hunan province

Objective The study was conducted to investigate the epidemiological characteristics of lyme disease in mountain areas in Hunan province and to determine the distribution of lyme-carrying ticks and rodent reservoir hosts so as to provide scientific evidence for the surveillance and prevention of this disease in future.Methods A serological investigation for lyme disease was made using IFA, where ticks and rodent spleens were examined using PCR.Results Lyme antibodies were identified in 93(10.18%) out of 914 human sera samples,the GMT being 39.331.56. The GMT were distinguishable between Shimen county and Liuyang city and across different age groups (P0.05),though the difference became insignificant between different genders (P0.05). Among 147 examined ticks,19 lyme-carrying ones were found (12.93%),while 12.75% of the 102 PCR spleen samples were from reservoir hosts.Rodents hosts from such species as Apodemus accounted for 13.16%,4.00%,19.35%,50.00%,0,0, respectively.Conclusion Since lyme infections,lyme-carrying ticks and rodent hosts such as Apodemus agrarius,Rattus norvegicus,Rattus losea,Rattus flavipectus were found in mountain areas in Hunan province,potential epidemic natural foci of lyme disease may have distributed in these areas.Confirmation requires further investigation.