| Autor: |
Malan AJ; Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa., Coetzer A; Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.; Global Alliance for Rabies Control South Africa Non-Profit Company, Pretoria 0181, South Africa., Sabeta CT; Agricultural Research Council-Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Rabies Reference Laboratory, Onderstepoort, Pretoria 0110, South Africa., Nel LH; Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.; Global Alliance for Rabies Control South Africa Non-Profit Company, Pretoria 0181, South Africa. |
| Abstrakt: |
Rabies is a viral zoonosis that causes an estimated 59,000 preventable human fatalities every year. While more than 120 countries remain endemic for dog-mediated rabies, the burden is the highest in Africa and Asia where 99% of human rabies cases are caused by domestic dogs. One such rabies-endemic country is South Africa where an estimated 42 preventable human deaths occur every year. Although canine rabies had been well described for most of the provinces in South Africa, the epidemiology of rabies within the North West Province had not been well defined prior to this investigation. As such, the aim of this study was to use nucleotide sequence analyses to characterise the extant molecular epidemiology of rabies in the North West Province of South Africa-with specific focus on the interface between dogs and sylvatic species. To this end, Rabies lyssavirus isolates originating from the North West Province were subjected to molecular epidemiological analyses relying on the Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo methodology on two distinct gene regions, viz. the G-L intergenic region and partial nucleoprotein gene. Our results provided strong evidence in support of an endemic cycle of canine rabies in the East of the province, and three independent endemic cycles of sylvatic rabies spread throughout the province. Furthermore, evidence of specific events of virus spill-over between co-habiting sylvatic species and domestic dogs was found. These results suggest that the elimination of canine-mediated rabies from the province will rely not only on eliminating the disease from the dog populations, but also from the co-habiting sylvatic populations using oral rabies vaccination campaigns. |
