[Demonstration of the tick-borne encephalitis virus in ticks by means of nucleic acid hybridization].

The method of molecular hybridization of nucleic acids (MHNA) is compared to the traditional bioprobe technique in the study of virus carriership of I. persulcatus ticks collected in the South and in the North of the area of coniferous and broad-leaved forests in the Khabarovsk Territory. Higher sensitivity of the MHNA method than that of the bioprobe was demonstrated by studying the tick pools: 4.9% versus 1.6% (1985), 18.2% versus 3.6% (1986). Virus carriership studied by MHNA in isolated ticks comprised 8.6% (1985) and 10.8% (1986) in the south of the region and 20.0% (1985)--in the north; average content of RNA of the tick-borne encephalitis virus comprised 10 pg. MHNA allows massive studies of individual ticks and better indication of the virus to be carried out; the response can be obtained in 24-48 hours.