The spread of canine rabies into Free State province of South Africa: A molecular epidemiological characterization

The Free State (FS) province of the Republic of South Africa is associated with endemic rabies in the yellow mongoose, Cynictis penicillata. Historically, this mongoose rabies virus biotype occasionally spilled over into domestic dogs, but the canid rabies virus biotype of southern Africa did not occur here, until recently. We report on the recent spread of canine rabies by means of a molecular epidemiological study that was performed on a cohort of 69 rabies viruses collected from dogs in FS province between 1995 and 2007. We have utilized a 592 nucleotide sequence of the cytoplasmic domain of glycoprotein and G-L intergenic region of the genomes of these viruses and of those obtained from surrounding geographical areas. It was found that viruses from the FS province and those obtained from the kingdom of Lesotho belong to the same epidemiological cycle with an average nucleotide sequence identity of 99%. This study contributes to a collection of data that demonstrate the increasing public and veterinary health threat posed by the radiation of dog rabies in Africa.