Phylogenetic characterization of rabies virus isolates from Carnivora in Brazil.
The incidence of canine rabies has been widely reported in Brazil, and new rabies virus (RV) variants, genetically similar to canine RV, have recently been isolated from foxes. In order to derive the epidemiological characteristics of Brazilian Carnivora RV, Brazilian RVs isolated from dogs, cats, and foxes were genetically analyzed. Brazilian Carnivora RV isolates were divided into 2 main lineages. The predominant lineage was found in dogs and cats, which included the Argentinean and Bolivian Carnivora RV isolates, and was extensively distributed throughout Brazil and surrounding countries. The other lineage consisted of three sublineages containing Brazilian dog and fox RV isolates, with the dog sublineages located on an internal branch of 2 fox sublineages, suggesting that RV transmission events might have occurred between foxes and dogs in the past. These results suggest that contact between dogs and wildlife has the potential to generate new rabies variants and that it is important to control RV infection cycles in both dogs and wildlife to prevent spread of rabies infection.
Nihon University Veterinary Research Center, 1866 Kameino, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252-8510, Japan.
Yuki
Y
Kobayashi
Nana
N
Inoue
Go
G
Sato
Takuya
T
Itou
Hamilton P
HP
Santos
Cristina J C
CJ
Brito
Albério A B
AA
Gomes
Marli F C
MF
Santos
Marlon V
MV
Silva
Carla S
CS
Mota
Fumio H
FH
Ito
Takeo
T
Sakai
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D002415:Cats; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D004285:Dogs; D005589:Foxes; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D011818:Rabies / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D011820:Rabies virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein
D012367:RNA, Viral