Molecular epidemiology of rabies virus isolates in India

In India, rabies is enzootic and is a serious public health and economic problem. India has a large population of stray dogs which, together with a lack of effective control strategies, might have led to the persistence of rabies virus (RV) in the canine population. Our objective was to study the molecular epidemiology of RV isolates in India based on nucleotide sequence analysis of 29 RV isolates originating from different species of animals in four states. Here we have analyzed two sets of sequence data based upon a 132-nucleotide region of the cytoplasmic domain (CD) of the G gene (G-CD) and a 549-nucleotide region (Psi-L) that combines the noncoding G-L intergenic region (Psi) and a fragment of the polymerase gene (L). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the RV isolates belong to genotype 1 and that they were related geographically but were not related according to host species. Five different genetic clusters distributed among three geographical regions were identified. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequences of G-CD between RV isolates revealed three amino acid changes (amino acid 462G [aa462G], aa465H, and aa468K) that distinguished the Indian RVs from RV isolates in other parts of the world. Analysis of the data indicated that the dog rabies virus variants are the major circulating viruses in India that transmit the disease to other domestic animals and humans as well.