Archival study of a Finnish isolate from the 1988/89 rabies outbreak

An archival brain sample from an infected dog taken during the 1988/89 rabies outbreak in Finland was investigated to confirm that it was infected with classical rabies virus (genotype 1). The first 400 base pairs of the virus nucleoprotein gene were then sequenced and used to undertake a phylogenetic comparison between this isolate and a panel of rabies virus sequences from the Baltic region. The Finnish dog isolate was identical to a virus isolated from a raccoon-dog also recorded during the 1988/89 outbreak and closely related to a third isolate from the Russian city of Pskov. The implications of these observations for the possible source of the Finnish outbreak are discussed.