The emergence and cross species transmission of newly discovered tick-borne Bunyavirus in China

A novel tick-borne Bunyavirus, discovered in China and later in South Korea and Japan, is now known as Huaiyangshan virus or severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus and has been identified as the causative agent of a hemorrhagic fever like disease. Of five species of ticks carrying Huaiyangshan viruses, Haemaphysalis longicomis was the most abundant in regions where the virus was endemic. Its usual hosts (cattle, goats, dogs, rats and chickens) tested positive for Huaiyangshan virus RNA and had a high seroprevalence. The distribution of H. longicomis and the migratory routes of four wild fowl across China, South Korea and Japan are coincident. Thus a tick and migratory bird model for the transmission of the Huaiyangshan virus was proposed.