Epidemiological surveillance of Henipavirus in Chongqing
Objective To establish nucleic acid testing techniques for detecting Nipah virus (NiV) and Hendra virus (HeV), and to test the NiV and HeV in peripheral blood collected from domestic pigs, cows and goats in Chongqing. Methods Peripheral blood samples of 580 domestic pigs, 250 cows, 180 goats were collected from Chongqing since June 2007 to June 2008. The lymphocytes were separated by density gradient centrifugation and total RNA was extracted using Trizol method for detection of NiV and HeV with one-step real-time RT-PCR. Sequence identification and analysis were performed for positive PCR prod-ucts. Virus isolation and culture were adopted for positive samples, and epidemiologic reports were submit-ted. Results Nucleic acid detections searching for NiV and HeV were successfully performed in animal blood samples collected from Chongqing. "Takeoff points" were not found in fluorescence amplification curves of all samples. Curves kept the same slope, and assays were judged as negative. Conclusion Until now, Neither NiV or HeV infection has been found in domestic animals blood samples collected from Chongqing, which suggest a lower possibility of outbreaks of Nipah disease and Hendra disease in Chongqing in the near future. 
 
Key words: 
Nipah virus;  Hendra virus;  Nucleic acid testing;  Epidemiology