Tsie, K.; Ngoepe, E.; Phahladira, B.; Khumalo, N.; Sabeta, C. Molecular Characterization of Lyssaviruses Originating from Domestic and Wild Cats Provides an Insight on the Diversity of Lyssaviruses and a Risk of Rabies Transmission to Other Susceptible Mammals and Humans in South Africa. Pathogens2023, 12, 1212.
Tsie, K.; Ngoepe, E.; Phahladira, B.; Khumalo, N.; Sabeta, C. Molecular Characterization of Lyssaviruses Originating from Domestic and Wild Cats Provides an Insight on the Diversity of Lyssaviruses and a Risk of Rabies Transmission to Other Susceptible Mammals and Humans in South Africa. Pathogens 2023, 12, 1212.
Tsie, K.; Ngoepe, E.; Phahladira, B.; Khumalo, N.; Sabeta, C. Molecular Characterization of Lyssaviruses Originating from Domestic and Wild Cats Provides an Insight on the Diversity of Lyssaviruses and a Risk of Rabies Transmission to Other Susceptible Mammals and Humans in South Africa. Pathogens2023, 12, 1212.
Tsie, K.; Ngoepe, E.; Phahladira, B.; Khumalo, N.; Sabeta, C. Molecular Characterization of Lyssaviruses Originating from Domestic and Wild Cats Provides an Insight on the Diversity of Lyssaviruses and a Risk of Rabies Transmission to Other Susceptible Mammals and Humans in South Africa. Pathogens 2023, 12, 1212.
Abstract
Rabies is one of the most significant public and veterinary health problem, causing ap-proximately 59 000 human deaths annually in the developing countries of Asia and Afri-ca. The aetiologic agent, a viral species of the Lyssavirus genus, is highly neurotropic and has a wide host range including terrestrial mammals and several Chiropteran species. The Lyssavirus mokola (MOKV) was first isolated in the late 1960s from organ pools of shrews (Crocidura flavescens manni) in the Mokola forest (Nigeria). To date, at least 30 MOKV isola-tions have been confirmed, all exclusively from Africa, with 73% from southern Africa. There is a limited knowledge about the epidemiology of MOKV and the reservoir host spe-cies is unknown. Here we report on a retrospective identification of a new MOKV from Eswatini, based on molecular characterization of rabies viruses originating from both domestic and African wild cats. A partial region of the lyssavirus genome, encoding the nucleoprotein, was amplified and sequenced. Nucleotide sequence analysis retrospec-tively identified a rare lyssavirus, a Lyssavirus mokola from a domestic cat from Eswatini, whilst the majority of the lyssaviruses were identified as Lyssavirus rabies (98%). Further-more, the nucleotide sequence divergence between the recently identified MOKV isolate, and the historical Lyssavirus mokola isolates ranged from 6.8% and 8.3%. This study further highlights the association between the potential host species of Lyssavirus mokola and the domestic cat as an incidental host. Therefore, continuous vaccination of domestic cats against rabies is crucial even after the elimination of dog-mediated rabies as spill-over re-lated to sylvatic rabies cycles is likely to occur.
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