Molecular epidemiology of rabies in the eastern and southeastern anatolian regions of türkiye, 2016-2021

Abstract

Rabies can be transmitted through biting, contact of infected saliva with damaged skin, and high levels of aerosol exposure. Dog and fox-mediated rabies are endemic in Turkey. In this study, the N gene and the G-L intergenic region sequences were obtained from rabies-positive brain samples from Eastrern and Southeastern Anatolia (2016-2021). These sequences were analyzed with sequences available in GenBank. They were used to create phylogenetic trees, demonstrating that all sequences from this study belong to the three different subclades (ME1a, ME2 and, CA2) of Cosmopolitan clade. This study provides a better understanding of the molecular epidemiology of rabies virus in the mentioned regions will have benefits for continuing comprehensive rabies surveillance, prevention and control in Türkiye.

Keywords

• eastern and southeastern anatolia
• g-l intergenic region
• rabies virus
• n gene