title: Phylogeography of rabies virus isolated from herbivores and bats in the Espírito Santo State, Brazil.
abstract: Rabies is enzootic in the State of Espírito Santo, Brazil. Every year, cattle and horses die from rabies that is transmitted by the vampire bat Desmodus rotundus. This paper describes the spread of the rabies virus by the continuous diffusion model using relaxed random walks with BEAST software. Forty-one (41) sequences of gene G from the rabies virus that was isolated from bats and domestic herbivores from several areas of the state between 2006 and 2010 were analyzed. The phylogenetic tree showed three main clusters as well as two sub-clusters under cluster 2. A spatial analysis showed that three strains of the rabies virus spread independently. In general, central Espírito Santo, which is mountainous, was the area where separation of the virus strains occurred. This physical barrier, however, was overcome at some point in time, as samples from different lineages were found in the same microarea.
authors.affiliation: Setor de Virologia e Viroses, Laboratório de Sanidade Animal, Hospital Veterinário, Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Agropecuárias, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense, Av. Alberto Lamego, 2000, Parque Califórnia, Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ 28013-600, Brazil. luizuenf@yahoo.com.br
authors.forename: Luiz Fernando Pereira
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Vieira
authors.forename: Sílvia Regina Ferreira Gonçalves
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carnieli
authors.forename: Luiz Carlos Barbosa
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Tavares
authors.forename: Ivanete
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kotait
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D002417:Cattle; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000821:virology*; D060434:Herbivory; D006736:Horses; D058751:Livestock / Q000821:virology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D058974:Phylogeography; D011818:Rabies / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D011820:Rabies virus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*