Table 3.
Detection of H7N9 nucleic acid in environmental specimens from live poultry markets
| Type of specimen |
Case-related specimens |
Non-case specimens |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tested N | H7N9+ N | + rate (%) | Tested N | H7N9+ N | + rate (%) | |
| Feces |
13 |
10 |
76.92 |
10 |
2 |
20.00 |
| Anal swab |
15 |
9 |
60.00 |
- |
- |
- |
| Throat swab |
10 |
5 |
50.00 |
1 |
1 |
100.00 |
| Drinking water |
- |
- |
- |
8 |
3 |
37.50 |
| Waste water |
13 |
5 |
38.46 |
6 |
2 |
33.33 |
| Feather smear |
16 |
11 |
68.75 |
5 |
2 |
40.00 |
| Cage smear |
7 |
5 |
71.43 |
17 |
5 |
29.41 |
| Others |
16 |
13 |
81.82 |
22 |
7 |
31.82 |
| Total | 90 | 58 | 64.44 | 69 | 22 | 31.88 |
Note: −: no specimen of the type available; in the specimens collected from the live poultry markets, the positive rate for H7N9 nucleic acid was markedly higher in the case-related specimens than in the non-case ones with a statistically significant difference by Pearson χ 2 test (χ 2 = 16.563, p < 0.05).