Ante-mortem and Post-mortem Diagnosis Modalities and Phylogenetic Analysis of Rabies Virus in Domestic and Wild Animals of Gujarat, India

Maulik G Patel; Arun C Patel; Samir H Raval; Kishan K Sharma; Sandip S Patel; Harshad C Chauhan; Rohit S Parmar; Mehul D Shrimali; Hitesh G Vamja; Jitendra Bhatol; Sushil K Mohapatra

doi:10.1007/s12088-023-01126-0

Ante-mortem and Post-mortem Diagnosis Modalities and Phylogenetic Analysis of Rabies Virus in Domestic and Wild Animals of Gujarat, India

Indian J Microbiol. 2023 Dec;63(4):645-657. doi: 10.1007/s12088-023-01126-0. Epub 2023 Nov 15.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Veterinary Microbiology, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University (Now Under Kamdhenu University), Sardarkrushinagar, Banaskantha, Gujarat 385005 India.
² Department of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University (Now Under Kamdhenu University), Sardarkrushinagar, Banaskantha, Gujarat 385005 India.
³ Department of Animal Biotechnology, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University (Now Under Kamdhenu University), Sardarkrushinagar, Banaskantha, Gujarat 385005 India.
⁴ Gir (East) Forest Division-Dhari, Gov. of Gujarat, Dhari, Gujarat India.
⁵ Forest Division- Banaskantha, Gov. of Gujarat, Banaskantha, Gujarat India.

Abstract

In the present study, total of 32 ante-mortem (AM) samples (saliva = 18 and corneal smears = 14) from six animal species (cattle = 5; camel = 1; goat = 1; horse = 1; buffalo = 4; dog = 6) and 28 post-mortem (PM) samples of domestic (cattle = 6; camel = 1; goat = 1; buffalo = 5; dog = 7) and wild animals (lion = 4, mongoose = 2; bear = 1; leopard = 1) were examined for rabies diagnosis in Gujarat, India. Direct fluorescent antibody test (dFAT) and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were applied on AM samples, whereas along with dFAT and RT-PCR, histopathological examination, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and real time PCR (qPCR) were used for PM diagnosis. Nucleotide sequencing of full nucleoprotein (N) and glycoprotein (G) genes were carried out upon representative amplicons. In AM examination, 7/18 saliva and 5/14 corneal impressions samples were found positive in dFAT and 8/18 saliva samples were found positive in RT-PCR. In PM examination, 14/28 samples showed positive results in dFAT and IHC with unusual large fluorescent foci in two samples. In histopathology, 11/28 samples showed appreciable lesion and Negri bodies were visible in 6 samples, only. Out of 23 brain samples examined. 12 samples were found positive in N gene RT-PCR and qPCR, and 10 samples in G gene RT-PCR. Phylogenetic analysis of N gene revealed that test isolates (except sample ID: lion-1; lion, Gir) form a close group with sequence ID, KM099393.1 (Mongoose, Hyderabad) and KF660246.1 (Water Buffalo, Hyderabad) which was far from some south Indian and Sri Lankan isolates but similar to Indian isolates from rest of India and neighboring countries. In G gene analysis, the test isolates form a close group with sequence ID, KP019943.1.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12088-023-01126-0.

Keywords: Ante-mortem diagnosis; Direct fluorescent antibody test (dFAT); Immunohistochemistry; Nucleotide sequencing; Real time PCR; Wild animals.

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