Surveillance of tick-borne infectious disease in Tiantai of Zhejiang province, 2006 - 2008

Objective To understand the categories, distributions and harms to peoples health of tick and tick-borne disease in Tiantai county, Zhejiang province. Methods Night traps were used to capture rodents and ticks were collected from the rodents captured and wild animals sold in markets. The infection of tick-born diseases was detected by PCR amplification with specific primers. Results Of the 141 rodents tested, the detection rate of tick was 17.02%, and the tick index was 0.4823. Totally 705 ticks were collected in domestic and wild animals, and DNA fragments of Borrelia burgdorferi, Ehrlichia and spotted fever were detected in organ specimens of mice and domestic animal. DNA fragments of spotted fever was detected in haemaphysalis longicornis. IgG antibody of Lyme disease and typhus antibody were detected in human serum samples. Conclusion There were more than one tick-born pathogen existed in Tiantai county, which could cause the incidence of tick-born infectious disease.