Epizootic Activity of Natural and Anthropourgic Tularemia Foci in the Territory of the Jewish Autonomous Region and the Khabarovsk City Outskirts during the Amur River Flood

Widespread epizootiological investigations were performed to estimate the influence of the Amur River flood on the epizootic activity of tularemia in small rodent populations within natural and anthropourgic foci. Determined were the numbers of the rodent-carriers and epizootic activity of tularemia infection in the forest type, lowland, flood-swamped as well as anthropourgic foci. The capture and enumeration of the rodents was conducted using Gero rat traps. Tested were water and silt samples, rodent nests, pellets and excrements of carnivorous mammals. Blood sera of healthy persons living within the focal territory were examined to reveal the immune-competent cohort. Collected materials were analyzed using bacteriological, genetic diagnostic and serological methods. Extremely high numbers of the carriers were registered in the lowland meadow-field and anthropourgic foci adjacent to the flooded areas. The signs of tularemia epizootic process were observed in the meadow-field and flood-swamped foci. Failed to reveal during the period of high water were the epizooties in the forest foci.

туляремия, грызуны, эпизоотическая ситуация, паводок, р Амур, tularemia, rodents, epizootic situation, flood, the Amur River

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