The Molecular Detection of and in Sika Deer () in Japan.

Fecal specimens (271 samples) from wild deer, , were collected from nine different areas in Japan; these samples were subjected to a real-time reverse transcription PCR for -and -specific 18S ribosomal RNA to investigate the prevalence of and infection. The incidence of and in the nine areas ranged from 0% to 20.0% and 0% to 3.4%, respectively. The prevalence of among male and female deer was 8.1% and 3.9%, respectively, while that of was 0.7% and 0.8%. Sequence analysis identified the deer genotype, , and from the sequence of specific partial 18S ribosomal RNA and assemblage A from the partial sequence of -specific 18S rRNA. The variation in regional prevalence indicates that infection depends on environmental factors, and that bovine was detected more frequently than cervine These data suggest that wild deer might be a healthy carrier of bovine .