Table 1.
Species Composition, Abundance, and Seropositivity Rates for Rickettsia, and Rate of Infections with Rickettsia in Small Mammals Trapped Between 2006 and 2010 in Taiwan
| Rickettsia seropositivity rate (%) | Rickettsia DNA detection rate (%)a | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host species | Captures, n (% of total) | R. conorii or R. rickettsii | R. typhi | SFG | TG | Overallb | Rickettsia spp. co-infection rate (%) |
| Shrews | |||||||
| Suncus murinus | 283 (20.6%) | NA | NA | 22.2 (8/36) | 11.1 (4/36) | 50.0 (18/36) | 8.3 (3/36) |
| Rodents | |||||||
| Rattus losea | 751 (54.6%) | 94.6 (694/734) | 2.3 (17/734) | 40.3 (73/181) | 9.9 (18/181) | 55.3 (100/181) | 9.9 (18/181) |
| Mus caroli | 145 (10.6%) | 48.9 (66/135) | 5.9 (8/135) | 43.2 (19/44) | 6.8 (3/44) | 70.5 (31/44) | 9.1 (4/44) |
| Bandicota indica | 83 (6.0%) | 88.0 (73/83) | 0.0 (0/83) | 41.2 (7/17) | 5.9 (1/17) | 76.5 (13/17) | 11.8 (2/17) |
| Mus musculus | 48 (3.5%) | 68.8 (33/48) | 6.3 (3/48) | 100 (6/6) | 0 (0/6) | 100.0 (6/6) | 33.3 (2/6) |
| Rattus exulans | 26 (1.9%) | 92.3 (24/26) | 0.0 (0/26) | 50.0 (3/6) | 16.7 (1/6) | 100.0 (6/6) | 16.7 (1/6) |
| Apodemus agrarius | 24 (1.8%) | 47.8 (11/23) | 8.7 (2/23) | 63.6 (7/11) | 9.1 (1/11) | 72.7 (8/11) | 18.2 (2/11) |
| Rattus norvegicus | 11 (0.8%) | 90.9 (10/11) | 0.0 (0/11) | 50.0 (3/6) | 16.7 (1/6) | 50.0 (3/6) | 33.3 (2/6) |
| Niviventer coxingi | 2 (0.2%) | 50.0 (1/2) | 0.0 (0/2) | 50.0 (1/2) | 0 (0/6) | 100.0 (2/2) | 0 (0/2) |
| Callosciurus erythraeus | 2 (0.2%) | 0.0 (0/2) | 0.0 (0/2) | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Total | 1375 | 85.7 (912/1064) | 2.8 (30/1064) | 41.1 (127/309) | 9.4 (29/309) | 60.5 (187/309) | 11.0 (34/309) |
An individual was considered positive for Rickettsia infection when Rickettsia was detected in the liver, kidney, or spleen.
Overall detection rate is not the sum of SFG and TG because some positive samples can not be sequenced successfully to reveal its identity (so can not be assigned to SFG or TG). This is also due to co-infections with both SFG and TG in some rodent individual and the exclusion of Rickettsia felis in the categorization of SFG and TG.
SFG, spotted fever group rickettsiae, including Rickettsia conorii, Rickettsia japonica, Rickettsia raoultii, Rickettsia rickettsia, Rickettsia sp. IG-1, Rickettsia sp. TwKM01, and Rickettsia sp. TwKM02; TG, typhus-group rickettsiae, including Rickettsia typhi. Rickettsia felis is considered a transitional group distinct from the SFG and TG rickettsiae (Reif and Macaluso, 2009) and was thus excluded.