Syndrome Virus in Ticks Collected

We investigated the infection rate for severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) among ticks col-lected from humans during May–October 2013 in South Ko-rea. Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks have been considered the SFTSV vector. However, we detected the virus in H. lon-gicornis, Amblyomma testudinarium, and Ixodes nipponensis ticks, indicating additional potential SFTSV vectors. Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging disease characterized by fever and thrombocytopenia. The syndrome is caused by SFTS vi-rus (SFTSV), a member of the family Bunyaviridae, genus Phlebovirus (1). SFTSV is related to, but distinctly dif-ferent from, Heartland viruses, which were isolated in the United States (2). The first case of SFTS was reported in China during 2010 (1), and in 2013, SFTSV infections were reported i