Registered: 2022.10.18 05:54:59 Modified: 2022.10.17 17:55:40
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Kim Hyun Jung
Foreign Infectious Diseases Division, Agriculture, Forestry and Livestock Headquarters
The National Statistical Office introduced a pet element for the first time in the 2020 population and housing census. It is intertwined with the social phenomenon brought about by the change in which the number of households with animals is increasing pet.
As a result of the sampling, the number of households raising pets was approximately 3,129,000 households, equal to 15% of the total households. Considering the total number of households, 1 in 7 households own a pet.
Among the many concerns of pet owners these days, the “mite” cannot be ruled out. This is because we get a lot of information through articles and reports that require special attention to tick-borne infectious diseases as outdoor activities, including walking, increase.
In fact, ticks are a big concern for pets who like to walk from spring to fall. It is also a problem for ticks to attach themselves to pets and cause damage such as sucking blood or causing itching, but a bigger problem lies in tick-borne diseases.
Tick-borne diseases such as Babesia, Anaplasma and Erlicia were already known, but in this article I would like to talk about severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS).
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SFTS is a severe febrile illness caused by the SFTS virus infection. Its history is only about 10 years. In 2009, the virus was isolated from a patient in a rural area of central and central China and is a new infectious disease known to the world.
As a vector of the disease, the small Sophie mite belonging to the Acaridae family and representing the highest ratio is known as the main vector species.1).
(Photo: Agriculture, Forestry and Livestock Quarantine)
In general, SFTS is transmitted through the bite of a tick infected with the SFTS virus.
Furthermore, compared to other infectious diseases, the death rate is very high and there is no vaccine or cure, so it is an infectious disease that requires prevention and active management.
In Korea, since the first case was reported in 2013 (average mortality rate: approximately 18.4%), it has occurred annually and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies and manages it as a third-party infectious disease. class.2).
Presence of human SFTS per year
(Source: Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
In humans, most deaths occur in the elderly over the age of 60, and the number of cases occur between September and November.
However, unlike humans, animals rarely show clinical symptoms or even die despite a relatively high antibody positivity rate.
The first reported case of an animal that died after showing clinical symptoms was a cheetah kept in a zoo in Hiroshima, Japan in 2017. Since then, there have been many cases of cats (mortality rate of around 60%). and dogs dying from infection with the SFTS virus in southern Japan.3-4).
In Korea, there have been cases of SFTS virus isolated from asymptomatic animals (goats, dogs, etc.), but no clinical symptoms or deaths have been reported. Viruses have been isolated from dogs with clinical signs and thrombocytopenia, leukopenia and altered blood chemistry levels. Since then, there have been cases where the symptoms are confirmed every year and the number is increasing.
SFTS, as previously mentioned, is a zoonosis. In particular, companion animals live in the same space with humans and come into close contact with humans, so there is a high risk of human-animal transmission and veterinary medical personnel who cannot avoid direct contact with infected animals must pay close attention.5).
In July 2020, the quarantine headquarters for agriculture, forestry and livestock jointly implemented the 「companion animal testing project」 in partnership with the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.6). It has been in operation for 3 years.
The pilot project that was operated in the first year is now 「Establishment of a human-animal transmission monitoring system of SFTS」The inspection was carried out more thoroughly than in the previous year.
This monitoring system is among the companion animals that visit the veterinary hospital. People who have been bitten by a tick or have clinical symptoms similar to SFTS infectionis in progress.
SFTS Testing for tick-borne infectious diseases on the blood of a suspect pet or on a tick sample taken from the animal’s bodydoing, SFTS If the virus infection is confirmed, veterinary medical staff and guardians who have treated pets are also investigated for transmission of the SFTS virus.He’s doing
From 2020 to date, 321 samples (248 dogs, 33 cats, 40 ticks) requested from the Directorate of Agriculture, Forestry and Livestock Quarantine have been tested for SFTS and 4 types of tick-borne diseases, for a total of 16 cases of SFTS are been confirmed.
Among these, the SFTS virus was isolated from two Jeju samples, requested in ’20 and ’21 respectively.
In the case of the four tick-borne tests conducted for the differential diagnosis of SFTS, the Babesia gene, a representative tick-borne disease, has been detected more each year in companion animals.
In the case of this year, although the number of test requests has increased compared to the previous year, the genes of anaplamma and ehrlichiosis were also detected, confirming the progressive increase in the incidence of various tick-borne diseases.
In the case of individuals with confirmed detection of the SFTS virus, fever and digestive symptoms, thrombocytopenia and leukopenia, etc. were common to SFTS-positive individuals who showed clinical symptoms in 2018.
Although clinical symptoms are gradually increasing due to SFTS virus infection, there are not many cases yet, so further case confirmation and related accumulation of information are needed in the future.
According to the results of gene sequencing analysis of viral genes derived from animals (goats, dogs) isolated from quarantine headquarters, including viruses isolated from companion animals, was found to be of genotype B with a higher isolation frequency 77% in humans.
It was confirmed that there was a high (highly correlated) genetic homology of more than 99% with the isolated virus of human origin.
Although it is difficult to generalize from the results of this analysis alone, Humans and animals share a common source of viral infectionIt can be assumed that
In addition, there have been reports of suspected human-animal transmission (infection) at home and abroad.
This is because there is a high possibility of being exposed to a large amount of the virus through blood or body fluids, and there are instances where many medical personnel who have participated in CPR for severe SFTS in humans have been infected with the SFTS virus.
Genetic analysis of 3 gene segments of the SFTS virus (dogs) isolated from veterinary hospital samples
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SFTS was designated a “common infectious disease” in Article 2 (11) of the “Infectious Disease Prevention and Management Act” in July 2020 in the field of human health. The biggest problem with SFTS is that no vaccines or treatments are available yet.
As the animal sector is not yet a legal livestock infectious disease, we are responding in accordance with the 「Guidelines for the Prevention and Management of SFTS in Pets」 (published by the Agriculture, Forestry and Quarantine Headquarters livestock, 2019), but it’s not easy to manage, it’s not
National quarantine policies and clinical treatment guidelines (guidelines) are essential for companion animal diseases that are important from a public health perspective (although they are not infectious livestock diseases).
For this reason, the role of the clinical veterinarian who first comes into contact with the disease is of fundamental importance.
We ask for your interest and cooperation from clinical veterinarians for zoonotic diseases and SFTS.
※ If you have any questions or additional information about SFTS animals, please contact 「Handbook for the prevention and management of severe fever thrombocytopenia syndrome in pets (livestock, companion animals, etc.)」 (go look)Please refer to
[참고문헌]
1) Yun SM, Park SJ, Kim YI, Park SH, Yu MA et al., Genetic and pathogenic diversity of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) in South Korea. JCI Insight, 2020, 5 (2) : e129531.
2) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Guidelines for the management of infectious diseases transmitted by ticks and rodents in 2020-2020
3) Kida.K, Matsuoka Y, Shimoda T, Matsuoka H, Yamada H et al. A case of cat-to-human transmission of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus. Jpn J Infect Dis. 2019; 72 (5): 356-358
4) Yamanaka A, Kirino Y, Fujimoto S, Ueda N, Himeji D, et al. Direct transmission of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus from domestic cats to veterinary staff. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020; 26 (12): 2994-2998
5) Quarantine headquarters of the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Rural Policies, Agriculture, Forestry and Zootechnics. A manual for the prevention and management of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) in pets (livestock, companion animals, etc.). 2019
6) Results of pilot test project for human-animal positive SFTS in 2020. Health and Disease Weekly (CDC,), 2021, 14 (24): 1722-1730.
<Please note that this article is a reprint of the manuscript published in the September 2022 issue of the Korean Veterinary Medical Association (KVMA) in consultation with the Korean Veterinary Medical Association and the author.
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