Ecology and evolution of rabies virus in Europe

The evolution of rabies viruses of predominantly European origin was studied by comparing nucleotide sequences of the nucleoprotein and glycoprotein genes, and by typing isolates using RFLP. Phylogenetic analysis of the gene sequence data revealed a number of distinct groups, each associated with a particular geographical area. Such a pattern suggests that rabies virus has spread westwards and southwards across Europe during this century, but that physical barriers such as the Vistula river in Poland have enabled localized evolution. During this dispersal process, two species jumps took place – one into red foxes and another into raccoon dogs, although it is unclear whether virus strains are preferentially adapted to particular animal species or whether ecological forces explain the occurrence of the phylogenetic groups.

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Oral vaccination of foxes and raccoon dogs against rabies with the 3rd generation oral rabies virus vaccine, SPBN GASGAS, in Finland

Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica ◽

10.1186/s13028-021-00605-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 63 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ad Vos ◽

Tiina Nokireki ◽

Marja Isomursu ◽

Tuija Gadd ◽

Ferenc Kovacs

Keyword(s):

Rabies Virus ◽

Virus Vaccine ◽

Field Performance ◽

Rabies Vaccine ◽

Red Foxes ◽

Suitable Alternative ◽

Generation Vaccine ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Oral Rabies Vaccine ◽

Raccoon Dogs

Abstract Background To prevent re-emergence of wildlife-mediated rabies in Finland, oral rabies vaccine baits are distributed every year during autumn in southern Finland in a vaccination zone bordering Russia. Recently, Finland introduced a 3rd generation oral rabies virus vaccine bait. By analysing bait uptake and seroconversion in red foxes and raccoon dogs, the field efficacy of this new vaccine strain, SPBN GASGAS, was compared with the originally used highly efficacious 1st generation vaccine SAD B19. Results Overall, 74.6% and 53.9% of the animals submitted from the vaccination area after the campaigns (2017–2019) tested positive for the presence of the bait marker and anti-rabiesvirus antibodies, respectively. No significant difference was observed between years, species and vaccine. Conclusions The field performance of the highly attenuated 3rd generation oral rabies vaccine, SPBN GASGAS, in terms of bait uptake and seroconversion was similar to the 1st generation vaccine, SAD B19, and therefore offers a suitable alternative.

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Comparative immunogenicity and efficacy studies with oral rabies virus vaccine SAD P5/88 in raccoon dogs and red foxes

Acta Veterinaria Hungarica ◽

10.1556/004.49.2001.3.4 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 49 (3) ◽

pp. 285-290

Author(s):

P. Schuster ◽

T. Müller ◽

A. Vos ◽

T. Selhorst ◽

L. Neubert ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rabies Virus ◽

Virus Vaccine ◽

Post Infection ◽

Effective Vaccine ◽

Red Foxes ◽

Oral Vaccination ◽

Post Vaccination ◽

Oral Application ◽

Raccoon Dogs ◽

Efficacy Studies

A comparative study of immunogenicity and efficacy of the oral rabies virus vaccine SAD P5/88 in raccoon dogs and foxes was conducted. The raccoon dogs received 10 (n = 6), 106.3 (n = 6) or 105.7 FFU SAD P5/88 (n = 5) by direct oral application, and subsequently all animals seroconverted. The foxes received 107.2 (n = 4), 106.2 (n = 4), 105.2 (n = 4) and 104.2 FFU SAD P5/88 (n = 5) by the same route. On days 106 and 196 post vaccination 10 raccoon dogs and 16 foxes were challenged with a relevant street virus, respectively. All 10 raccoon dogs vaccinated with 106.3 (n = 5) or 105.7 FFU SAD P5/88 (n = 5) survived the challenge, whereas all control animals (n = 5) died of rabies. Two foxes vaccinated with 104.2 FFU and one fox vaccinated with 105.2 FFU died of rabies on day 7, 17 and 12 post infection, respectively. Also all control foxes succumbed to rabies. Our findings demonstrate that SAD P5/88 is not only an effective vaccine for oral vaccination of foxes but also for that of raccoon dogs.

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Comparative immunogenicity and efficacy studies with oral rabies virus vaccine SAD P5/88 in raccoon dogs and red foxes

Acta Veterinaria Hungarica ◽

10.1556/avet.49.2001.3.4 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 49 (3) ◽

pp. 285-290 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

P. Schuster ◽

A. Vos ◽

et al. ◽

T. Müller

Keyword(s):

Rabies Virus ◽

Virus Vaccine ◽

Red Foxes ◽

Raccoon Dogs ◽

Efficacy Studies

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Functional alterations caused by mutations reflect evolutionary trends of SARS-CoV-2

Briefings in Bioinformatics ◽

10.1093/bib/bbab042 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Liang Cheng ◽

Xudong Han ◽

Zijun Zhu ◽

Changlu Qi ◽

Ping Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reference Genome ◽

Sequence Data ◽

Purifying Selection ◽

Virus Genome ◽

Receptor Binding Domain ◽

Evolutionary Trends ◽

Synonymous Mutations ◽

Almost All ◽

Virus Strains ◽

New Mutations

Abstract Since the first report of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly worldwide. Due to the limited virus strains, few key mutations that would be very important with the evolutionary trends of virus genome were observed in early studies. Here, we downloaded 1809 sequence data of SARS-CoV-2 strains from GISAID before April 2020 to identify mutations and functional alterations caused by these mutations. Totally, we identified 1017 nonsynonymous and 512 synonymous mutations with alignment to reference genome NC_045512, none of which were observed in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein. On average, each of the strains could have about 1.75 new mutations each month. The current mutations may have few impacts on antibodies. Although it shows the purifying selection in whole-genome, ORF3a, ORF8 and ORF10 were under positive selection. Only 36 mutations occurred in 1% and more virus strains were further analyzed to reveal linkage disequilibrium (LD) variants and dominant mutations. As a result, we observed five dominant mutations involving three nonsynonymous mutations C28144T, C14408T and A23403G and two synonymous mutations T8782C, and C3037T. These five mutations occurred in almost all strains in April 2020. Besides, we also observed two potential dominant nonsynonymous mutations C1059T and G25563T, which occurred in most of the strains in April 2020. Further functional analysis shows that these mutations decreased protein stability largely, which could lead to a significant reduction of virus virulence. In addition, the A23403G mutation increases the spike-ACE2 interaction and finally leads to the enhancement of its infectivity. All of these proved that the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 is toward the enhancement of infectivity and reduction of virulence.

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Higher-level relationships among the eucalypts are resolved by ITS-sequence data

Australian Systematic Botany ◽

10.1071/sb00039 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 49 ◽

Cited By ~ 82

Author(s):

Dorothy A. Steane ◽

Dean Nicolle ◽

Gay E. McKinnon ◽

René E. Vaillancourt ◽

Brad M. Potts

Keyword(s):

Internal Transcribed Spacer ◽

Sequence Data ◽

Its Region ◽

Molecular Data ◽

Nuclear Ribosomal Dna ◽

Its Sequence ◽

Phylogenetic Groups ◽

Single Section ◽

Western Australian ◽

Genus Eucalyptus

This expanded survey of ITS sequences represents the largest analysis of molecular data ever attempted on Eucalyptus. Sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA were included in an analysis of 90 species of Eucalyptus s.s. and 28 species representing eight other genera (Allosyncarpia, Angophora, Arillastrum, Corymbia, Eucalyptopsis, Stockwellia, Lophostemon and Metrosideros). The results of the study indicate that Angophora and Corymbia form a well-supported clade that is highly differentiated from Eucalyptus s.s. Corymbia species are divided between two clades, one of which may be the sister to Angophora. Allosyncarpia, Arillastrum, Eucalyptopsis and ‘Stockwellia’ are also highly differentiated from Eucalyptus s.s. If the genus Eucalyptus is to be expanded to include Angophora and Corymbia(sensu Brooker 2000), ITS data suggest that Allosyncarpia, Eucalyptopsis, ‘Stockwellia’ and potentially Arillastrum should also be included in Eucalyptus s.l. The ITS data suggest that subg. Symphyomyrtus is paraphyletic and that subg. Minutifructus should be included within it. Within subg.Symphyomyrtus, only sect. Maidenaria appears to be monophyletic. Sections Adnataria and Dumaria are probably monophyletic; sections Exsertaria and Latoangulatae are very close and probably should be combined in a single section. Section Bisectae is polyphyletic and is divided into two distinct lineages. The phylogenetic groups depicted by ITS data are consistent with the frequency of natural inter-specific hybridisations as well as data from controlled crosses within subgenus Symphyomyrtus. The ITS data illustrate that subg. Idiogenes and western Australian monocalypts are early evolutionary lines relative to E. diversifolia, E. rubiginosa (monotypic subg. Primitiva) and the eastern monocalypts and that subg. Primitiva should be sunk into subg. Eucalyptus. Subgenus Eudesmia may be monophyletic, grouping with subgenera Idiogenes and Eucalyptus. Further work is required to confirm the phylogenetic positions of the monotypic subgenera Alveolata, Cruciformes, Acerosae and Cuboidea.

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Efficacy of the oral rabies virus vaccine strain SPBN GASGAS in foxes and raccoon dogs

Vaccine ◽

10.1016/j.vaccine.2017.09.093 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 37 (33) ◽

pp. 4750-4757 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Conrad M. Freuling ◽

Elisa Eggerbauer ◽

Stefan Finke ◽

Christiane Kaiser ◽

Christian Kaiser ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rabies Virus ◽

Vaccine Strain ◽

Virus Vaccine ◽

Raccoon Dogs

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Storage of Rabies Virus Strains L. Pasteur and CVS at Low Temperatures Using Cryoprotectants

Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine ◽

10.15407/cryo26.02.162 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 162-162

Author(s):

Viktoria V. Burkova ◽

Keyword(s):

Rabies Virus ◽

Low Temperatures ◽

Virus Strains

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Making Genomic Surveillance Deliver: A Lineage Classification and Nomenclature System to Inform Rabies Virus Elimination

10.1101/2021.10.13.464180 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Kathryn Campbell ◽

Robert J Gifford ◽

Joshua Singer ◽

Verity Hill ◽

Aine O'Toole ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rabies Virus ◽

Sequence Data ◽

Classification Systems ◽

Virus Elimination ◽

Data Resource ◽

Genomic Tools ◽

Control Programmes ◽

History Of ◽

Virus Sequence ◽

Globally Distributed

The availability of pathogen sequence data and use of genomic surveillance is rapidly increasing. Genomic tools and classification systems need updating to reflect this. Here, rabies virus is used as an example to showcase the potential value of updated genomic tools to enhance surveillance to better understand epidemiological dynamics and improve disease control. Previous studies have described the evolutionary history of rabies virus, however the resulting taxonomy lacks the definition necessary to identify incursions, lineage turnover and transmission routes at high resolution. Here we propose a lineage classification system based on the dynamic nomenclature used for SARS-CoV-2, defining a lineage by phylogenetic methods for tracking virus spread and comparing sequences across geographic areas. We demonstrate this system through application to the globally distributed Cosmopolitan clade of rabies virus, defining 73 total lineages within the clade, beyond the 22 previously reported. We further show how integration of this tool with a new rabies virus sequence data resource (RABV-GLUE) enables rapid application, for example, highlighting lineage dynamics relevant to control and elimination programmes, such as identifying importations and their sources, and areas of persistence and transmission, including transboundary incursions. This system and the tools developed should be useful for coordinating and targeting control programmes and monitoring progress as we work towards eliminating dog-mediated rabies, as well as having potential for broad application to the surveillance of other viruses.

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