Molecular epidemiology of rabies virus isolates in Uganda

African field rabies virus isolates from domestic animals can be phylogenetically divided into three geographic lineages: Africa 1a (North and West Africa); Africa 1b (East and South Africa); Africa 2 (West Africa). Partial nucleotide sequences of the rabies virus nucleoprotein gene (203-nt) were obtained from five dogs and three goats in Uganda. The analyzed Ugandan field rabies viruses were categorized into the Africa 1a and Africa 1b lineages. The present study thus demonstrates that two African lineage-derived rabies viruses coexist in Uganda, which is located in the geographical region between the known Africa 1a and Africa 1b lineage distributions.