TY - JOUR AU - Velasco-Villa, Andrés AU - Reeder, Serena A. AU - Orciari, Lillian A. AU - Yager, Pamela A. AU - Franka, Richard AU - Blanton, Jesse D. AU - Zuckero, Letha AU - Hunt, Patrick AU - Oertli, Ernest H. AU - Robinson, Laura E. AU - Rupprecht, Charles E. T1 - Enzootic Rabies Elimination from Dogs and Reemergence in Wild Terrestrial Carnivores, United States T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2008 VL - 14 IS - 12 SP - 1849 SN - 1080-6059 AB - To provide molecular and virologic evidence that domestic dog rabies is no longer enzootic to the United States and to identify putative relatives of dog-related rabies viruses (RVs) circulating in other carnivores, we studied RVs associated with recent and historic dog rabies enzootics worldwide. Molecular, phylogenetic, and epizootiologic evidence shows that domestic dog rabies is no longer enzootic to the United States. Nonetheless, our data suggest that independent rabies enzootics are now established in wild terrestrial carnivores (skunks in California and north-central United States, gray foxes in Texas and Arizona, and mongooses in Puerto Rico), as a consequence of different spillover events from long-term rabies enzootics associated with dogs. These preliminary results highlight the key role of dog RVs and human–dog demographics as operative factors for host shifts and disease reemergence into other important carnivore populations and highlight the need for the elimination of dog-related RVs worldwide. KW - Rabies elimination KW - rabies re-emergence KW - molecular epidemiology KW - oral vaccination KW - rabies in wildlife KW - research KW - United States DO - 10.3201/eid1412.080876 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/14/12/08-0876_article ER - End of Reference