Abstract：
Francisella tularensis is an intracellular gram-negative bacterium known as the causative agent of tularemia, which can be transmitted to humans by direct contact with wild animals or by tick bites. Although F. tularensis is highly pathogenic, its recent prevalence in Japan is underreported due to the small number of reported cases. To clarify the current situation of F. tularensis in wild animals, we conducted surveillance on various species of wild animals in Yamaguchi prefecture. In this study, we screened 809 samples collected from 90 Japanese black bears, 105 Japanese monkeys, 168 sika deer, 205 wild boars, and 84 bats. For seroprevalence analysis, we tested 177 serum samples from 75 black bears and 102 monkeys using the microagglutination test. The results showed that serums from five black bears exhibited slight agglutination. Western blot was performed as a confirmatory test on these five samples, but no positive signals were detected. Additionally, molecular surveillance was conducted using DNA extracted from 464 whole blood and 168 tissues, targeting the gene encoding 23 KDa hypothetical protein by real-time PCR and outer membrane protein A gene by conventional PCR. No positive samples of F. tularensis were detected by either real-time or conventional PCR. Although we did not detect any F. tularensis-positive samples through serological and molecular analyses, continuous surveillance studies are necessary since sporadic human cases have been reported in Japan.
摘要：
曲拉氏杆菌是一种细胞内革兰氏阴性菌，被称为突拉氏杆菌，它可以通过直接接触野生动物或蜱叮咬传播给人类。虽然土拉灵是高致病性的,由于报告的病例数量很少，最近在日本的流行率被低估。为明确当前野生动物中的土拉伦病菌,我们对山口县的各种野生动物进行了监测。在这项研究中,我们筛选了从90只日本黑熊身上收集的809个样本，105只日本猴子,168只梅花鹿,205头野猪,84只蝙蝠对于血清阳性率分析，我们使用微凝集试验检测了来自75只黑熊和102只猴子的177份血清样本。结果表明，五只黑熊的血清表现出轻微的凝集。对这五个样本进行蛋白质印迹作为确认测试，但没有检测到阳性信号。此外,使用从464个全血和168个组织中提取的DNA进行分子监测，通过实时PCR靶向编码23KDa假设蛋白的基因，并通过常规PCR靶向外膜蛋白A基因。通过实时PCR或常规PCR均未检测到土力氏杆菌的阳性样品。虽然我们没有通过血清学和分子分析检测到任何土拉灵阳性样本，连续监测研究是必要的，因为日本已经报告了零星的人类病例。
