title: Molecular characterisation of rabies virus strains in the Republic of Macedonia.
abstract: Rabies, a worldwide zoonosis, remains a public-health concern despite oral wildlife vaccination in Europe. After a ten-year break, Macedonia reported eight rabies cases in 2011-2012. Two countries (Serbia and Bulgaria) bordering Macedonia are reporting cases in domestic and wild animals. This report describes the genetic characterisation of eight isolates from Macedonia compared with representative samples from neighbouring countries. All of the isolates tested belong to the Eastern European group, with a high degree of nucleotide sequence identity in the nucleoprotein gene. The close genetic relationship between isolates from the three bordering countries suggests that wildlife is responsible for rabies movements in the region.
authors.affiliation: French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), Nancy Laboratory for Rabies and Wildlife, European Union Reference Laboratory for rabies, European Union Reference Laboratory for rabies serology, OIE Reference Laboratory for rabies, WHO Collaborating centre for research and management in zoonoses control, Technopôle agricole et vétérinaire, BP 40009, 54 220 Malzéville Cedex, France. evelyne.picard-meyer@anses.fr
authors.forename: Evelyne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Picard-Meyer
authors.forename: Slavcho
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mrenoshki
authors.forename: Vesna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Milicevic
authors.forename: Darinka
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ilieva
authors.forename: Iskra
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cvetkovikj
authors.forename: Aleksandar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cvetkovikj
authors.forename: Kiril
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Krstevski
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dzhadzhovski
authors.forename: Emmanuelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Robardet
authors.forename: Emil
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gagnev
authors.forename: Emil
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Iliev
authors.forename: Budimir
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Plavsic
authors.forename: Toni
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kirandjiski
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cliquet
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic / Q000821:virology; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000821:virology; D001483:Base Sequence; D002415:Cats; D004285:Dogs; D018397:Equidae; D005589:Foxes; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011818:Rabies / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D011820:Rabies virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018843:Republic of North Macedonia / Q000453:epidemiology; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000821:virology*