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Great Britain has been rabies‐free since 1922, which is often considered to be in part due to the strict laws requiring that imported cats and dogs be vaccinated and quarantined for 6 months immediately on entry into the country. Except for two isolated incidents, this quarantine policy has contributed to ensuring that Great Britain has remained free of rabies. In 2000, amendments to the UK quarantine laws were made and the Pet Travel Scheme (PETS) was launched for companion animals traveling from European Union countries and rabies‐free islands. Since its introduction, it has been proposed that other countries including North America should be included within the UK scheme. A quantitative risk assessment was developed to assist in the policy decision to amend the long‐standing quarantine laws for dogs and cats from North America. It was determined that the risk of rabies entry is very low and is dependent on the level of compliance (i.e., legally conforming to all of the required regulations) with PETS and the number of pets imported. Assuming 100% compliance with PETS and the current level of importation of cats and dogs from North America, the annual probability of importing rabies is lower for animals traveling via PETS (7.22 × 10−6, 95th percentile) than quarantine (1.01 × 10−5, 95th percentile). These results, and other scientific evidence, directly informed the decision to expand the PETS scheme to North America as of December 2002.

The use of the rabies vaccine for post-exposure prophylaxis started as early as 1885, revealing a safe and efficient tool to prevent human rabies cases. Preventive vaccination is the basis for the control of canine-mediated rabies, which has already been eliminated from extensive parts of the world, including Europe. Plans to eliminate canine-mediated human rabies by 2030 have been agreed upon by international organisations. However, rabies vaccines are not efficacious against some divergent lyssaviruses. The presence in European indigenous bats of recently described lyssaviruses, which are not neutralised by antibody responses to existing vaccines, as well as the declaration of an imported case of an African lyssavirus, which also escapes vaccine-derived protection, leaves the European health authorities unable to provide efficacious protective vaccines to some potential situations of human exposure. All these circumstances highlight the need for a universal pan-lyssavirus rabies vaccine, able to prevent human rabies in all circumstances. ; Funding: A.C.B., A.R.F. and L.M.M. were partly funded by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural A airs (Defra), Scottish Government andWelsh Government under project grants SV3500 and SE0431. A.C.B. and A.R.F. are also partly funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under RABYD-VAX grant agreement No. 733176. J.E.E. is partly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities under project grant SAF2017-89355-P. ; Sí

In South Africa, canid rabies virus (RABV) infection is maintained in domestic and wildlife species. The identification of rabies in African civets raised the question of whether this wildlife carnivore is a potential reservoir host of RABVs of direct and ancestral dog origin (dog-maintained and dog-derived origins) with an independent cycle of transmission. Genetic analyses of African civet nucleoprotein sequences for 23 African civet RABVs and historically published sequences demonstrated that RABVs from African civets have two origins related to dog and mongoose rabies enzootics. The data support observations of the interaction of civets with domestic dogs and wildlife mongooses, mostly in Northern South Africa and North-East Zimbabwe. Within each host species clade, African civet RABVs group exclusively together, implying intra-species virus transfer occurs readily. The canid RABV clade appears to support virus transfer more readily between hosts than mongoose RABVs. Furthermore, these data probably indicate short transmission chains with conspecifics that may be related to transient rabies maintenance in African civets. Hence, it is important to continue monitoring the emergence of lyssaviruses in this host. Observations from this study are supported by ongoing and independent similar cases, in which bat-eared foxes and black-backed jackal species maintain independent rabies cycles of what were once dog-maintained RABVs. ; Table S1: PCR primers used in the study, Table S2: RABV sequences used for phylogenetic analysis with African civet sequences (Figure 2). ; Defra, Scottish Government and Welsh Government under project SE0431, and the EU Framework Horizon 2020 Innovation Grant, European Virus Archive (EVAg, grant no. 653316). DLH was funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Wellcome Trust, grant number 86200571. ; http://www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses ; am2021 ; Veterinary Tropical Diseases

West Nile virus (WNV) is the aetiological agent of the mosquito-borne zoonotic disease West Nile fever. The virus, first isolated in Uganda in 1937, evolved into two distinct lineages in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that subsequently spread to most continents where the virus has evolved further as evident through phylogenetic analysis of extant genomes. Numerous published reports from the past 70 years from countries in SSA indicate that the virus is endemic across the region. However, due in part to the limited availability of diagnostic methods across large areas of the continent, the human burden of WNV is poorly understood. So too are the drivers for translocation of the virus from countries south of the Sahara Desert to North Africa and Europe. Migratory birds are implicated in this translocation although the transient viraemia, measured in days, and the time taken to migrate, measured in weeks, suggest a more complex mechanism is in play. This review considers the evidence for the presence of WNV across SSA and the role of migratory birds in the emergence of the virus in other continents. ; We appreciate the support of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Nigeria, for the financial support that partly assisted the doctoral research of WS. ; This study was supported by the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra), Scottish Government and Welsh Government through grant SV3045 and the Animal Health and Welfare ERA-NET (Anihwa) funded ARBONET project SE0550. ; http://www.parasitesandvectors.com ; am2018 ; Medical Virology

[Background]: There has been an emergence and expansion of tick-borne diseases in Europe, Asia and North America in recent years, including Lyme disease, tick-borne encephalitis and human anaplasmosis. The primary vectors implicated are hard ticks of the genus Ixodes. Although much is known about the host response to these bacterial and viral pathogens, there is limited knowledge of the cellular responses to infection within the tick vector. The bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum is able to bypass apoptotic processes in ticks, enabling infection to proceed. However, the tick cellular responses to infection with the flaviviruses tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and louping ill virus (LIV), which cause tick-borne encephalitis and louping ill respectively, are less clear. [Results]: Infection and transcriptional analysis of the Ixodes ricinus tick cell line IRE/CTVM20 with the viruses LIV and TBEV, and the bacterium A. phagocytophilum, identified activation of common and distinct cellular pathways. In particular, commonly-upregulated genes included those that modulate apoptotic pathways, putative anti-pathogen genes, and genes that influence the tick innate immune response, including selective activation of toll genes. [Conclusion]: These data provide an insight into potential key genes involved in the tick cellular response to viral or bacterial infection, which may promote cell survival and host resistance. ; This work was jointly funded by the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme under ANTIGONE (project 278976), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Scottish Government and Welsh Government under project SE4112, EUH2020-funded Research Infrastructure Grant 'European Virus Archive Global (EVAg)' (H2020 grant agreement number 653316) and the INIA grant E-RTA2013-C04-04 (FEDER cofunded, Spain). Lesley Bell-Sakyi is supported by the United Kingdom Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council's Institute Strategic Programme Grant (BBS/E/I/0000174) to the Pirbright Institute. ; Peer Reviewed

Pathogen discovery contributes to our knowledge of bat-borne viruses and is linked to the heightened interest globally in bats as recognised reservoirs of zoonotic agents. The transmission of lyssaviruses from bats-to-humans, domestic animals, or other wildlife species is uncommon, but interest in these pathogens remains due to their ability to cause an acute, progressive, invariably fatal encephalitis in humans. Consequently, the detection and characterisation of bat lyssaviruses continues to expand our knowledge of their phylogroup definition, viral diversity, host species association, geographical distribution, evolution, mechanisms for perpetuation, and the potential routes of transmission. Although the opportunity for lyssavirus cross-species transmission seems rare, adaptation in a new host and the possibility of onward transmission to humans requires continued investigation. Considering the limited efficacy of available rabies biologicals it is important to further our understanding of protective immunity to minimize the threat from these pathogens to public health. Hence, in addition to increased surveillance, the development of a niche pan-lyssavirus vaccine or therapeutic biologics for post-exposure prophylaxis for use against genetically divergent lyssaviruses should be an international priority as these emerging lyssaviruses remain a concern for global public health. ; Defra, the Scottish Government and Welsh Government; European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program; South African Research Chair Initiative (of the Department of Science and Innovation administered by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. ; http://www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses ; pm2021 ; Medical Virology

12 páginas, 1 tabla, 7 figuras. -- This document is protected by copyright and was first published by Frontiers. All rights reserved. It is reproduced with permission ; Anaplasma phagocytophilum are transmitted by Ixodes spp. ticks and have become one of the most common and relevant tick-borne pathogens due to their impact on human and animal health. Recent results have increased our understanding of the molecular interactions between Ixodes scapularis and A. phagocytophilum through the demonstration of tissue-specific molecular pathways that ensure pathogen infection, development and transmission by ticks. However, little is known about the Ixodes ricinus genes and proteins involved in the response to A. phagocytophilum infection. The tick species I. scapularis and I. ricinus are evolutionarily closely related and therefore similar responses are expected in A. phagocytophilum-infected cells. However, differences may exist between I. scapularis ISE6 and I. ricinus IRE/CTVM20 tick cells associated with tissue-specific signatures of these cell lines. To address this hypothesis, the transcriptional response to A. phagocytophilum infection was characterized by RNA sequencing and compared between I. scapularis ISE6 and I. ricinus IRE/CTVM20 tick cell lines. The transcriptional response to infection of I. scapularis ISE6 cells resembled that of tick hemocytes while the response in I. ricinus IRE/CTVM20 cells was more closely related to that reported previously in infected tick midguts. The inhibition of cell apoptosis by A. phagocytophilum appears to be a key adaptation mechanism to facilitate infection of both vertebrate and tick cells and was used to investigate further the tissue-specific response of tick cell lines to pathogen infection. The results supported a role for the intrinsic pathway in the inhibition of cell apoptosis by A. phagocytophilum infection of I. scapularis ISE6 cells. In contrast, the results in I. ricinus IRE/CTVM20 cells were similar to those obtained in tick midguts and suggested a role for the JAK/STAT pathway in the inhibition of apoptosis in tick cells infected with A. phagocytophilum. Nevertheless, tick cell lines were derived from embryonated eggs and may contain various cell populations with different morphology and behavior that could affect transcriptional response to infection. These results suggested tissue-specific signatures in I. scapularis ISE6 and I. ricinus IRE/CTVM20 tick cell line response to A. phagocytophilum infection that support their use as models for the study of tick-pathogen interactions. ; This research was supported by grant BFU2011-23896 from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), Spain and the European Union FP7 ANTIGONE project number 278976. NA was funded by MINECO, Spain. LMH was supported by a fellowship from the University of Castilla La Mancha (UCLM), Spain. MV was supported by the Research Plan of UCLM, Spain. ; Peer reviewed

All members of the lyssavirus genus cause the disease rabies. European bat lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1) viruses are divided genetically into three groups according to geographic location and host reservoir. We report here the first genome sequence for an EBLV-1 isolated from Eptesiscus isabellinus in the Iberian Peninsula, Spain. ; This work was supported by grants from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (SE0423 and SE0427) and by the European Union FP7-funded Research Infrastructure Grant European Virus Archive (19 228292). ; Sí

Rabies is a notifiable disease in animals in the European Union. Despite the existence of several recommendations made by international organizations for rabies control, surveillance and monitoring of rabies in animals vary greatly between Member States. In this report recommendations are proposed for improving and harmonising rabies surveillance and reporting in animals in Europe. An adequate system of surveillance should be in place in all countries, whatever the rabies status (rabies-free and infected countries). Surveillance should be evenly distributed in time and space and should target animals suspected of having contracted the disease. All countries should report both positive and negative results of rabies diagnosis. For countries involved in oral rabies vaccination programmes (infected as well as rabies-free countries), the monitoring of rabies vaccination, based on investigating hunted animals from vaccinated areas, should be undertaken for assessing the efficacy of these programmes. The standardisation of diagnostic reference techniques and new confirmatory tests (such as Polymerase Chain Reaction) used in European Union is recommended. A national bat rabies surveillance network should be established in all European countries based on the testing of sick, rabies-suspect or dead bats of all bat species for lyssavirus infections. The Rabies Bulletin Europe is recommended as the basis for the reporting scheme of animal rabies in Europe with additional information to improve the existing data collection system and monitoring of rabies trends over time. Veterinary authorities should also report cases regularly to the OIE database interface.

Mokola virus (MOKV) appears to be exclusive to Africa. Although the first isolates were from Nigeria and other Congo basin countries, all reports over the past 20 years have been from southern Africa. Previous phylogenetic studies analyzed few isolates or used partial gene sequence for analysis since limited sequence information is available for MOKV and the isolates were distributed among various laboratories. The complete nucleoprotein, phosphoprotein, matrix and glycoprotein genes of 18 MOKV isolates in various laboratories were sequenced either using partial or full genome sequencing using pyrosequencing and a phylogenetic analysis was undertaken. The results indicated that MOKV isolates from the Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic and Nigeria clustered according to geographic origin irrespective of the genes used for phylogenetic analysis, similar to that observed with Lagos bat virus. A Bayesian Markov-Chain-Monte-Carlo- (MCMC) analysis revealed the age of the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of MOKV to be between 279 and 2034 years depending on the genes used. Generally, all MOKV isolates showed a similar pattern at the amino acid sites considered influential for viral properties. ; The South African National Research Foundation (NRF) and the South African Polioemylitis Research Foundation (PRF) as well as grants from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (SE0423 and SE0427), the Department of Science and Technology (04/17/c215), BMBF (01KI1016A), the Research and Policy for Infectious Disease Dynamics (RAPIDD) programme of the Science and Technology Directorate, US Department of Homeland Security, at the Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, and by the EU FP7–funded Research Infrastructure Grant ''European Virus Archive'' (no. 19 228292). ; http://www.plosntds.org ; am2014

Rabies is a life-threatening neglected tropical disease: tens of thousands of cases are reported annually in endemic countries (mainly in Africa and Asia), although the actual numbers are most likely underestimated. Rabies is a zoonotic disease that is caused by infection with viruses of the Lyssavirus genus, which are transmitted via the saliva of an infected animal. Dogs are the most important reservoir for rabies viruses, and dog bites account for >99% of human cases. The virus first infects peripheral motor neurons, and symptoms occur after the virus reaches the central nervous system. Once clinical disease develops, it is almost certainly fatal. Primary prevention involves dog vaccination campaigns to reduce the virus reservoir. If exposure occurs, timely post-exposure prophylaxis can prevent the progression to clinical disease and involves appropriate wound care, the administration of rabies immunoglobulin and vaccination. A multifaceted approach for human rabies eradication that involves government support, disease awareness, vaccination of at-risk human populations and, most importantly, dog rabies control is necessary to achieve the WHO goal of reducing the number of cases of dog-mediated human rabies to zero by 2030.