Farzana Shaheen
Detection Of Rabies Virus In Population Of Pakistan Bat - 2011
Rabies is a zoonotic disease of the warm blooded animals caused by an enveloped, negative sense RNA virus which is a member of the Lyssavirus genus, belongs to the family Rhabdoviridae. The virus is present in the saliva of the carrier animal (dogs, cats, skunks, foxes, raccoons, bats, groundhogs, farm livestock including cows, sheep, goats, horses and pigs etc). Bats are belonging to order Chiroptera, having about 1100 species.
One hundred bats were captured using the mist net from different areas of Punjab, Pakistan viz; Bahawalpur, Toba Tek Singh, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Attack and Kasur District with the help of Wildlife and Ecology Department, Ravi campus UVAS, Pattoki. The majority of sites visited were water bodies and bat roost. Besides bats six samples were also collected from suspected dog, cow and mules.
The sample type was oropharyngeal swabs and brain samples. All the samples were analyzed with Mice Inoculation Test (MIT), Indirect Fluorescent Antibody Technique (iFAT) and Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). MIT was performed on all the samples, positive control and suspected samples of dog, cow and mule showed typical signs of rabies. While the mice injected with negative control and the bats samples remained healthy and active till four weeks. Similarly, no fluorescence was observed in case of bat samples and negative control while the positive control and suspected dog, cow and mule samples showed prominent focal areas of apple green color fluorescence. All these samples were further analyzed by RT-PCR and results were comparable with MIT and FAT. Specific bands of 879bp were obtained by the amplification of "intergenic" region using specific set of primers.
The present study showed that rabies virus antigen is not present in following 5 species; Taphozous nudiventris, Scotophilus heathii, Scotoecus pellidus, Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Scotophilus kohlil of Pakistani bat population.
Department of Microbiology
1256,T
Detection Of Rabies Virus In Population Of Pakistan Bat - 2011
Rabies is a zoonotic disease of the warm blooded animals caused by an enveloped, negative sense RNA virus which is a member of the Lyssavirus genus, belongs to the family Rhabdoviridae. The virus is present in the saliva of the carrier animal (dogs, cats, skunks, foxes, raccoons, bats, groundhogs, farm livestock including cows, sheep, goats, horses and pigs etc). Bats are belonging to order Chiroptera, having about 1100 species.
One hundred bats were captured using the mist net from different areas of Punjab, Pakistan viz; Bahawalpur, Toba Tek Singh, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Attack and Kasur District with the help of Wildlife and Ecology Department, Ravi campus UVAS, Pattoki. The majority of sites visited were water bodies and bat roost. Besides bats six samples were also collected from suspected dog, cow and mules.
The sample type was oropharyngeal swabs and brain samples. All the samples were analyzed with Mice Inoculation Test (MIT), Indirect Fluorescent Antibody Technique (iFAT) and Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). MIT was performed on all the samples, positive control and suspected samples of dog, cow and mule showed typical signs of rabies. While the mice injected with negative control and the bats samples remained healthy and active till four weeks. Similarly, no fluorescence was observed in case of bat samples and negative control while the positive control and suspected dog, cow and mule samples showed prominent focal areas of apple green color fluorescence. All these samples were further analyzed by RT-PCR and results were comparable with MIT and FAT. Specific bands of 879bp were obtained by the amplification of "intergenic" region using specific set of primers.
The present study showed that rabies virus antigen is not present in following 5 species; Taphozous nudiventris, Scotophilus heathii, Scotoecus pellidus, Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Scotophilus kohlil of Pakistani bat population.
Department of Microbiology
1256,T