Comparative molecular characterisation of the rabies virus in the Lithuanian raccoon dog population

The objective of this work was to determine nucleoprotein gene sequences and genetically characterise the rabies virus (RABV) isolates in order to know which virus group (biotype) is circulating in the raccoon dog population in Lithuania. For rabies virus phylogenetic characterisation, 16 RABV isolates from raccoon dogs were used. The isolates were selected according to different geographical location. A 400 bp region of the nucleoprotein gene was sequenced and analysed together with reference raccoon dog sequences of the RABV isolates from Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Poland, and other West European countries available in the GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the isolates from different parts of Lithuania were closely related and belonged to RABV genotype 1 and showed significant bootstrap support inside North-Eastern Europe group of raccoon dog RABV. The phylogenetic relationships between Lithuanian raccoon dogs RABV isolates and those from neighbouring countries showed 97.7%- 99.5% identity. A close genetic relationship between the raccoon dog and fox rabies isolates from different regions of Lithuania (99.5%) was identified, suggesting that rabies viruses circulating in raccoon dogs and foxes in this region might have the same origin.