Molecular epidemiology of rabies virus isolates from South Korea.
A molecular epidemiological study was performed on 13 Korean virus isolates, which were collected from wild and domestic animals diagnosed as rabid between 1998 and 2004. Seven samples were from domestic animals such as dogs and cattle infected by rabid raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides koreensis), and the rest of the six samples were from raccoon dogs in the wild. The study was carried out based on the comparison of nucleotide and amino acid sequences of nucleoprotein (N) and glycoprotein (G) coding regions and nucleotide sequence of the G-L intergenic (Psi) non-coding region of the isolates. The similarities of nucleotide and amino acid sequence were at least 97.8 and 98.5%, respectively, between all Korean isolates. Phylogenetic analyses of the isolate showed that they formed a monophyletic group closely related to the Arctic strains but distant from other Asian strains, including Chinese strains. The fact that the raccoon dog is the main epidemic carrier of rabies in Korea and the results of these studies supported the conclusion of previous studies (Kuzmin et al.) that the raccoon dogs take part in the circulation of rabies virus within their natural territories in the Far East. The Korean isolates can be divided into two subgroups. All the topology of the most likelihood tree of Korean isolates using nucleotide and amino acid sequences of N, G and G-L region reflected not the species but the year of isolation and geographical location of the virus isolates. This study presents the detailed description of the molecular epidemiology of rabies virus in Korea.
Hyun
Bang-Hun
BH
National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Services, 480 Anyang 6 dong, Manan-gu, Anyang, Gyenggi-do, Republic of Korea. hyunbh@nvrqs.go.kr
Lee
Kyoung-Ki
KK
Kim
In-Joong
IJ
Lee
Kyung-Woo
KW
Park
Hyun-Jung
HJ
Lee
O-Soo
OS
An
Soo-Hwan
SH
Lee
Joong-Bok
JB
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic / Q000821:virology*; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000821:virology*; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology; D004285:Dogs; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019251:Nucleocapsid / Q000235:genetics; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins; D011818:Rabies / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D011820:Rabies virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011821:Raccoons / Q000821:virology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics
D000956:Antigens, Viral; D006023:Glycoproteins; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; C064951:glycoprotein G, Rabies virus; C099601:nucleocapsid protein, Rabies virus