EPIDEMIOLOGY OF RABIES IN CHIROPTERANS AND ADVANCES IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Abstract

Rabies, a worldwide zoonosis, affects central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous terminations resulting in death. Rabies virus is transmitted by bites from infected animals, belongs to Lyssavirus genus that presents eleven different species, most of them isolated from chiropterans. Chiropterans present high importance on the maintenance of the rabies virus in nature. The vampire bats are responsible for the occurrence of several human outbreaks in Brazil and Latin America. Many molecular techniques and their combinations were developed and, nowadays, allow a better evaluation of the genetic modifications of the virus and that, associated to the phenotypic variants, answer many epidemiological discussions. Classic and molecular epidemiology prove that the genetic variability of the rabies virus in the Americas and the rest of the world is a result of this human action and disordered development of the civilization, allowing that wild animals have a closed relationship with human population, exposed to new risks.