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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, March 2002, p. 951-958, Vol. 40, No. 3
0095-1137/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.40.3.951-958.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Antigenic Diversity and Distribution of Rabies Virus in Mexico

Andrés Velasco-Villa,1* Mauricio Gómez-Sierra,1 Gustavo Hernández-Rodríguez,1 Victor Juárez-Islas,1 Alejandra Meléndez-Félix,1 Fernando Vargas-Pino,2 Oscar Velázquez-Monroy,2 and Ana Flisser1,{dagger}

Instituto de Diagnóstico y Referencia Epidemiológicos, SSA, Carpio 470, Colonia Santo Tomás, 11340 Mexico City,1 Centro Nacional de Vigilancia Epidemiológica, SSA, San Luis Potosí 199, Colonia, Roma, 06700 Mexico City, Mexico2

Received 25 June 2001/ Returned for modification 28 October 2001/ Accepted 30 December 2001

Rabies remains a public health problem in the Americas because of the great diversity of wild reservoirs that maintain the virus in nature. Here we report the antigenic characterization of 254 rabies viruses isolated from 148 nonreservoir and 106 reservoir hosts collected in 27 states of Mexico. Nine out of 11 antigenic variants previously reported in the United States were detected in Mexico by using the limited panel of monoclonal antibodies donated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some rabies virus variants were isolated from their natural reservoirs, which were also taxonomically identified. Terrestrial reservoirs included stray dogs with V1, Urocyon cineroargenteus (gray foxes) with V7, and two subspecies of Spilogale putorius (spotted skunks) with different viral variants (V8 and V10). Aerial hosts included Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana and Desmodus rotundus, which harbored V9 and V4 and harbored V11, respectively. All variants, with the exception of V9, were isolated from nonreservoir hosts, while V3, V4, and V5 were not isolated from their natural reservoirs but only from livestock. Rabies virus antigenic typing allowed us to determine rabies reservoirs and their distribution in Mexico, data which will probably improve prevention and control of the illness in humans and in the reservoir hosts.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratorio de Rabia, Departamento de Virología, Instituto de Diagnóstico y Referencia Epidemiológicos, SSA, Carpio 470, Colonia, Santo Tomás, 11340 Mexico City, Mexico. Phone: (525) 3414880, ext. 259. Fax: (525) 3411432. E-mail: avelasco{at}mail.ssa.gob.mx or avelasco_villa@yahoo.com.

{dagger} Present address: Facultad de Medicina, UNAM, Ciudad Universitaria, San Ángel, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, March 2002, p. 951-958, Vol. 40, No. 3
0095-1137/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.40.3.951-958.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

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