Abstract

CIFUENTES JIMENEZ, Jimmy Fernando; PEREZ LOPEZ, Rubén Darío  and  VERJAN GARCIA, Noel. Bat Reservoirs for Rabies Virus and Epidemiology of Rabies in Colombia: a review. Ces. Med. Vet. Zootec. [online]. 2017, vol.12, n.2, pp.134-150. ISSN 1900-9607.  https://doi.org/10.21615/cesmvz.12.2.5.

Rabies is a fatal zoonotic disease caused by a neurotropic RNA virus part of the family Rhabdoviridae. The disease is characterized by encephalitic inflammation and is responsible for a number of annual fatal deaths of people and animals in the world. Chiropters such as insectivorous, frugivorous and hematophagous bats are the major transmitters, reservoirs, and vectors of the rabies virus. In Colombia, a total of thirty-five cases of human rabies occurred between 2000 2014. Of the thirty-five cases twenty-two were transmitted by bats. The genetic variant V3 (hematophagous bats) were responsible for 24 human deaths, while the genetic variant V4, carried by insectivorous bats, caused three human deaths. The disease is mainly linked to infected cats that may have hunted infected bats and then transmitted the virus to humans. Diagnosis is usually made by detection of the virus from infected animals and techniques such as RT-PCR, which might be used to promote active surveillance in bat populations. Rabies is a preventable disease and vaccination of pets confers protective immunity, however, vaccination coverage of pets in Colombia is still limited. This review article collects epidemiological data of rabies virus genetic variants associated with chiropters species that have been reported to transmit the virus in the world and emphasizes on rabies cases reported in Colombia during the last decades.

Keywords : Chiroptera; genetic variants; Rhabdoviridae; zoonotic diseases.

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