ANTIGENIC AND MOLECULAR TYPING OF RABIES VIRUS STRAINS ISOLATED AT THE INSTITUTO DE ZOONOSIS LUIS PASTEUR (IZLP) FROM BUENOS AIRES, IN THE PERIOD 2007- 2018

GURY DOHMEN, F. E.; CISTERNA, D.; CARABALLO, D. A.; BELTRÁN, F. J.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; XXIX Rabies in the Americas; 2018

Since created in 1886, the Instituto de Zoonosis Luis Pasteur (Buenos Aires) has pioneered both the production of antirabic vaccines as well as rabies diagnosis. Since 1992 a monoclonal antibody panel against the viral nucleoprotein was introduced to typify circulating variants. In 2008 a Reverse Transcription ? Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) technique was employed in parallel for diagnosis in decomposed samples. In 2010 this technique was coupled with Sanger sequencing for molecular typing. Positive samples submitted to the IZLP between 2007-2018, were typed and strains were associated to their geographical distribution.Antigenic characterization was performed by Indirect Immunofluorescence using a 19 monoclonal antibodies panel (CDC, USA). Viral RNA extraction was carried out using column-based commercial kits. RT-PCR was performed using the OneStep Kit RT-PCR (Qiagen, Germany) obtaining a product of 259 bp. Sequencing reactions were carried out using BigDye Terminator v3.1 (ThermoFisher, USA), and reads were obtained using the Applied Biosystems 3500 Series Genetic Analyzer (ThermoFisher, USA).In the studied period, 328 (7.5%) out of 4348 diagnostic submissions were positive, 284 (86%) of which were typed. The most prevalent variant V4 (59.71%) linked to the bat species Tadarida brasiliensis but found also in four dogs, three cats, and a red fox. The subsequent most frequent variants were V3 and V3a, associated to the vampire bat Desmodus rotundus (23,31%), followed by V1 (8,48%), Myotis spp (2,82%) with one case in a dog, Eptesicus spp (1,41%) with 2 cases in cats, Histiotus spp (1,41%), V6 or Lasiurus spp (1,76%) and V2 (1%). This study depicts rabies virus distribution in reservoirs from Argentina since 2007 to date. A total of 11 spillover events linked to insectivorous bats and a human case with V1, remark the importance of holding antirabic vaccination programmes in canines and felines.