Genetic characterization of rabies virus circulating in crab-eating fox (Cerdocyum thous) in the State of Paraiba, Northeastern Brazil

Rabies is a viral zoonotic disease present in two thirds of all countries, and causes the death of one person every 10 minutes (~70,000 deaths/year). The reservoirs of the Rabies Virus (RABV) are bats and canids, and it has also been found in other animals, including Cerdocyon thous (crab-eating fox) and Pseudalopex vetulus (hoary fox). Here we used Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), phylogenetic, and in vitro/in vivo analyses, to characterized the genome of a new subtype of RABV circulating in foxes of the Northeastern region of Brazil. We verified that although these variants were similar to existing strains from wild canids and domestic canines from Brazil, the samples contained escape mutants, suggesting that it was a heterogeneous virus population. In all, we used several molecular techniques to characterize a new RABV strain circulating in wild-foxes in Northeastern Brazil, and verified still manifested its notorious pathogenic characteristics.