Epidemiology of vampire bat-transmitted rabies virus in Goiás, central Brazil: re-evaluation based on G-L intergenic region

The vampire bat-transmitted rabies virus isolates divided into 8 phylogenetic lineages in the previous nucleoprotein gene analysis were divided into 10 phylogenetic lineages with significant bootstrap values. The distributions of most variants were reconfirmed to be delimited by mountain chains. Furthermore, variants in undulating areas have narrow distributions and are apparently separated by mountain ridges.This study demonstrates that the 619-nt sequence including G-L intergenic region is more useful for a state-level phylogenetic analysis of rabies virus than the partial nucleoprotein gene, and simultaneously that the distribution of vampire bat-transmitted RABV variants tends to be separated not only by mountain chains but also by mountain ridges, thus suggesting that the diversity of vampire bat-transmitted RABV variants was delimited by geographical undulations.Rabies is a zoonosis that kills infected mammals, including humans, and is mainly transmitted by carnivores. In the Americas, chiropterans (insectivorous, frugivorous and hematophagous bat) are another reservoir of this disease. Although dog-transmitted rabies in central Brazil has been reduced by aggressive vaccination programs [1], chiroptera (particularly the common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundas)-transmitted rabies remains endemic in this region, and harms both the livestock industry and the public health sector [2,3].To date, vampire bat-transmitted rabies in livestock has been controlled by reducing the population of vampire bats and by vaccinating livestock [3,4]. However, the depopulation of vampire bats has limitations and the effects are temporary, while vaccination of livestock is only carried out for some animals and is ineffective in decreasing rabies levels in vampire bats.For the sustainable and effective control of vampire bat rabies, further knowledge of epidemiological features, such as vampire bat ecology and the dynamics of vampire bat-transmitted rabies, is necessary. Molecular epi