[Viral surveillance on rabies in Hunan province, in 2006].

OBJECTIVE: To understand the source and distribution of rabies virus (RV) in Hunan province with viral surveillance in order to provide scientific measures for prevention and control on rabies.

METHODS: Brain samples from healthy-looking domestic dogs were collected in the agricultural markets at the districts of high, middle, and low incidence rates and detected by direct Immunofluorescence assay (DFA). Positive samples would be further detected by RT-PCR and the surveillance samples were detected by RT-PCR. The positive samples detected by RT-PCR were sequenced with N gene.

RESULTS: The infection rate of those healthy-looking domestic dogs with rabies virus was 2.78% in Hunan province in 2005. 23 positive samples' N gene were sequenced and their similarities were 88.8% - 100.0%. The results indicated that Hunan rabies virus N gene aberrance was mainly synonymous aberrance and did not carry obvious regional characteristics. The rabies virus were circulating among different districts in Hunan province, and the neighboring provinces such as Guizhou, Hubei, Guangxi, Jiangsu and Henan. There were no positive samples detected in salivary, blood and urine samples. There was one positive sample detected in two skin samples.

CONCLUSION: There are dogs infected with rabies virus found in Hunan province and this study showed that rabies virus detected in Hunan had a close genetic relationship with those rabies identified in other provinces, suggesting that study on the immunity and management of dog related rabies should be strengthened.