Serologic survey of the sentinel animals for plague surveillance and screening for complementary diagnostic markers to F1 antigen by protein microarray.

Plague is a deadly infectious disease caused by the gram-negative bacterium, Yersinia pestis. In 2005, five plague patients were confirmed in the Yulong County of the Yunnan Province, China. In this study, the serologic survey of > 2,900 serum samples from domestic dogs and cats in and around the county, where human plague occurred, confirmed that domestic dogs and cats could serve as sentinel animals for plague surveillance. Meanwhile, the antibody responses in the infected dogs and cats were profiled by microarray containing 218 proteins of Y. pestis. In addition to F1, LcrV, YPCD1.28c, and YPO2118 induced humoral responses in all or most of the individuals, providing complementary candidates to F1 antigen for diagnostic markers of plague.