Monoclonal antibody characterization of rabies virus strains isolated in the River Plate Basin

In this study, 91 strains isolated in the River Plate Basin, South America, were examined from the epidemiological standpoint and with monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to the nucleocapsid of rabies virus. Such strains reacted to MAbs in accordance with nine different patterns (antigenic variants). Rabies virus was isolated from 49 cattle, 21 dogs, 11 non-haematophagous bats, four vampire bats, two foxes, two horses, one buffalo, and one human. Five of the variants had not been described previously. It was also found that two cases of rabies in wild foxes (Cerdocyon thous) which had attacked persons in the Province of Chaco, Argentina, had been caused by variants from dog and vampire bat, while two cases in frugivorous bats (Artibeus lituratus) from Argentina and Brazil, had been infected by vampire bat variants. In addition, symptoms shown by cattle infected with strains which reacted as originating in canine vectors, differed from those observed in bovines from which the variants isolated corresponded to vampire bats.