Rabies in ferret badgers, southeastern China

Abstract

Ferret badger-associated human rabies cases emerged in China in 1994. We used a retrospective epidemiologic survey, virus isolation, laboratory diagnosis, and nucleotide sequencing to document its reemergence in 2002-2008. Whether the cause is spillover from infected dogs or recent host shift and new reservoir establishment requires further investigation.

Figure 1

Distribution of human rabies cases in mainland China, 2007. Red stars indicate ferret badger–associated human rabies cases. Numbers in parentheses in key indicate number of affected provinces.

Figure 2

Position of a ferret badger–associated rabies virus isolate (ZJ-LA) in a phylogenetic tree constructed based on the nucleoprotein genes from representative dog rabies virus isolates and common vaccine strains in China (A) and the glycoprotein genes from representative dog rabies virus isolates and common vaccine strains in China (B). This figure was drawn by MEGA 4 (www.megasoftware.net) with maximum composite likelihood model. Bootstrap values are calculated from 1,000 repetitions. Scale bars represent phylogenetic distance between isolates.