Characterization of rabies virus isolates in Bolivia.
In Latin America, rabies is still an important public health problem. Canine rabies, and wild animal rabies, especially transmitted by hematofagous and insectivorous bats, has become an emerging problem in the countries of this region. We received 363 samples with a laboratory-confirmed rabies diagnosis from Bolivia during l997-2001. From these, we could obtain 222 rabies virus isolates by intra-cerebral inoculation in mice. By antigenic characterization we could identify 147 isolates as variant 1, 2 isolates as variant 2, 3 isolates as variant 3, and 1 isolate as variant 5. Phylogenetic analysis of 84 isolates established that they segregated in 3 different branches, corresponding to 3 genetic variants, 78 isolates corresponding to antigenic variant 1 segregated in the same lineage as the antigenic variant 5, 2 isolates corresponding to antigenic variant 2 segregated in another lineage, and 3 isolates from antigenic variant 3 segregated in a different lineage.The genetic variant that mainly circulates in Bolivia is maintained in a cycle whose main reservoir are dogs, but it is not possible to discard the presence of other cycles, in which different species of bats or other wild mammals could be participating.
Laboratorio de Diagnóstico de Rabia, Sección Virologi;a, Instituto de Salud Pública de Chile, Marathon, Nuñoa Santiago 1000, Chile. mfavi@ispch.cl
Myriam
M
Favi
Aleida
A
Nina
Verónica
V
Yung
Jorge
J
Fernández
D000818:Animals; D000940:Antigenic Variation; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D001838:Bolivia / Q000453:epidemiology; D004197:Disease Reservoirs; D004285:Dogs; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011818:Rabies / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary / Q000821:virology*; D011820:Rabies virus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology; D012703:Serotyping; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D000956:Antigens, Viral; D012367:RNA, Viral