Rabies in the African Civet: An Incidental Host for Lyssaviruses?

Claude T Sabeta,Lorraine M Mcelhinney,Anthony R Fooks,Denise A Marston,Baby M N Phahladira,Daniel L Horton

doi:10.3390/v12040368

Abstract

In South Africa, canid rabies virus (RABV) infection is maintained in domestic and wildlife species. The identification of rabies in African civets raised the question of whether this wildlife carnivore is a potential reservoir host of RABVs of direct and ancestral dog origin (dog-maintained and dog-derived origins) with an independent cycle of transmission. Genetic analyses of African civet nucleoprotein sequences for 23 African civet RABVs and historically published sequences demonstrated that RABVs from African civets have two origins related to dog and mongoose rabies enzootics. The data support observations of the interaction of civets with domestic dogs and wildlife mongooses, mostly in Northern South Africa and North-East Zimbabwe. Within each host species clade, African civet RABVs group exclusively together, implying intra-species virus transfer occurs readily. The canid RABV clade appears to support virus transfer more readily between hosts than mongoose RABVs. Furthermore, these data probably indicate short transmission chains with conspecifics that may be related to transient rabies maintenance in African civets. Hence, it is important to continue monitoring the emergence of lyssaviruses in this host. Observations from this study are supported by ongoing and independent similar cases, in which bat-eared foxes and black-backed jackal species maintain independent rabies cycles of what were once dog-maintained RABVs.

Highlights

Lyssaviruses are highly neurotropic viruses characterised by non-segmented and negative-stranded RNA genomes
The mongoose rabies biotype (Africa 3) was delineated into five previously recognized clades, four of which were spatially dispersed throughout South Africa
The fifth clade (#5) consists of rabies viruses originating from wildlife host species, including two African civet samples and a slender mongoose, spanning the north east to the south west of Zimbabwe [16], Figure 2

Summary

Introduction

Lyssaviruses are highly neurotropic viruses characterised by non-segmented and negative-stranded RNA genomes. These viruses are typically bullet-shaped and belong to the Rhabdoviridae family and the Lyssavirus genus [1,2]. All members of the genus Lyssavirus are aetiologic agents of rabies, and are capable of inducing a fatal encephalitic disease in susceptible host species, including humans, a disease considered. Rabies remains an important disease from both a veterinary and public health standpoint and at least 59,000 human deaths occur due to the disease every year [5,6,7]. The domestic dog is the principal source of infection of the majority (≥ 95%) of human rabies cases globally [8]

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