{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,3]],"date-time":"2026-06-03T15:53:41Z","timestamp":1780502021164,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,10]],"date-time":"2021-12-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1639094400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Tunisian Ministry of higher education and research","award":["LR16-IPT03"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["LR16-IPT03"]}]},{"name":"Institut Pasteur de Tunis","award":["PCI-2017-06"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PCI-2017-06"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Viruses"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Rabies is a viral zoonosis that is transmissible to humans via domestic and wild animals. There are two epidemiological cycles for rabies, the urban and the sylvatic cycles. In an attempt to study the epidemiological role of wild canidae in rabies transmission, the present study aimed to analyze the genetic characteristics of virus isolates and confirm prior suggestions that rabies is maintained through a dog reservoir in Tunisia. Virus strains isolated from wild canidae were subject to viral sequencing, and Bayesian phylogenetic analysis was performed using Beast2 software. Essentially, the virus strains isolated from wild canidae belonged to the Africa-1 clade, which clearly diverges from fox-related strains. Our study also demonstrated that genetic characteristics of the virus isolates were not as distinct as could be expected if a wild reservoir had already existed. On the contrary, the geographic landscape is responsible for the genetic diversity of the virus. The landscape itself could have also acted as a natural barrier to the spread of the virus.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v13122473","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,10]],"date-time":"2021-12-10T08:17:58Z","timestamp":1639124278000},"page":"2473","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Molecular Epidemiology of Rabies in Wild Canidae in Tunisia"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Zied","family":"Bouslama","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Rabies Diagnostics, Institute Pasteur of Tunis, Belvedere, Tunis 1002, Tunisia"},{"name":"Faculty of Sciences, Universit\u00e9 Tunis El Manar, Tunis 2092, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Habib","family":"Kharmachi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Rabies Diagnostics, Institute Pasteur of Tunis, Belvedere, Tunis 1002, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nourhene","family":"Basdouri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Rabies Diagnostics, Institute Pasteur of Tunis, Belvedere, Tunis 1002, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jihen","family":"Ben Salem","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Rabies Diagnostics, Institute Pasteur of Tunis, Belvedere, Tunis 1002, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Samia","family":"Ben Maiez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Rabies Diagnostics, Institute Pasteur of Tunis, Belvedere, Tunis 1002, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7494-0463","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mariem","family":"Handous","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Rabies Diagnostics, Institute Pasteur of Tunis, Belvedere, Tunis 1002, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohamed","family":"Saadi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Rabies Diagnostics, Institute Pasteur of Tunis, Belvedere, Tunis 1002, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abdeljalil","family":"Ghram","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Epidemiology and Veterinary Microbiology, LR 16 IPT 03, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Universit\u00e9 Tunis El Manar, Tunis 2092, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Imed","family":"Turki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Service des Maladies Contagieuses, Ecole Nationale de M\u00e9decine V\u00e9t\u00e9rinaire-Sidi Thabet, Universit\u00e9 Manouba, Sidi Thabet 2020, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"70","DOI":"10.1006\/viro.1993.1236","article-title":"Molecular Diversity of the Lyssavirus Genus","volume":"194","author":"Bourhy","year":"1993","journal-title":"Virology"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2671","DOI":"10.1093\/nar\/14.6.2671","article-title":"Primary Structure of Leader RNA and Nucleoprotein Genes of the Rabies Genome: Segmented Homology with VSV","volume":"14","author":"Tordo","year":"1986","journal-title":"Nucleic Acids Res."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Troupin, C., Dacheux, L., Tanguy, M., Sabeta, C., Blanc, H., Bouchier, C., Vignuzzi, M., Duchene, S., Holmes, E.C., and Bourhy, H. 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