• Animals
• Dogs
• DNA, Circular
• Coyotes
• Arizona
• DNA Viruses/genetics

• Cattle and Desmodus rotundus
• Herbivores
• Lyssavirus rabies
• Phylogeography

• Animals
• Cattle
• Rabies/veterinary
• Rabies virus
• Lyssavirus/genetics
• Chiroptera
• Phylogeny
• Bayes Theorem
• Brazil
• RNA

• 2017/06089-4 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

• Animals
• Humans
• Rabies/epidemiology
• Rabies/veterinary
• Ecology
• Public Health

• attenuated vaccine strains
• pathogenesis
• rabies virus
• reverse genetics systems
• structural proteins

• Costa Rica
• One Health
• lyssavirus
• prophylaxis
• rabies
• vaccination
• vampire bat
• zoonosis

• Animals
• Chiroptera
• Costa Rica
• Dogs
• Rabies/prevention & control
• Rabies/veterinary
• Rabies virus
• United States
• Zoonoses

Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV) has a wide distribution throughout Europe. Distinctive temporal patterns of spillover into the human population are related to population dynamics of the reservoir host, the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus). As the rodent host is tied to specific habitats with small individual ranges, PUUV genetic diversity is also highly correlated with geographic distance. Using sequenced portions of viral S and M segments, we determined whether geographic clusters were supported. Human cases of PUUV infections are concentrated in southeastern Austria. We detected four distinct genotypes: two genotypes of the Alpe-Adria (ALAD) lineage typically associated with southeast Europe, and two sublineages of the Central Europe (CE) lineage. One cluster of CE genotypes represents a phylogenetically distinct sublineage compared to previously reported CE clades, and extends the boundary of the CE lineage further south than previously reported.

• Puumala orthohantavirus
• genetic diversity
• hantavirus
• molecular epidemiology
• phylogeography

• Animals
• Austria/epidemiology
• Disease Reservoirs/virology
• Genetic Variation
• Genotype
• Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome/epidemiology
• Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome/virology
• Humans
• Phylogeny
• Phylogeography
• Puumala virus/classification
• Puumala virus/genetics
• RNA, Viral/genetics
• Rodentia/virology

• Plasmodium falciparum
• Tanzania
• drug resistance
• isolation-by-distance
• malaria
• molecular inversion probes
• population structure

• DNA virus
• Drosophila innubila
• co-evolution
• evolutionary biology
• genetics
• genomics
• immunity

• Animals
• Biological Evolution
• DNA Virus Infections/veterinary
• DNA Virus Infections/virology
• DNA Viruses/genetics
• DNA Viruses/isolation & purification
• DNA Viruses/pathogenicity
• DNA Viruses/physiology
• Drosophila/virology
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Virulence

• R01 AI139154 NIAID NIH HHS
• P20 GM103638 NIGMS NIH HHS
• R00 GM114714 NIGMS NIH HHS
• R00 GM114714 NIH HHS
• P20 GM103418 NIGMS NIH HHS
• R01 AI139154 NIH HHS
• KU CMADP
• K-INBRE
• National Institutes of Health
• National Science Foundation

• Direct flourescent antibody test (DFAT)
• Phylogenetic tree
• Rabies
• Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)
• Sequence

• elimination
• endgame
• fox rabies
• oral rabies vaccination
• wildlife vaccination

• Cameroon
• FMDV
• cattle
• epidemiology
• foot-and-mouth disease
• transboundary

• Animals
• China/epidemiology
• Dog Diseases/epidemiology
• Dog Diseases/transmission
• Dog Diseases/virology
• Dogs
• Pets
• Phylogeny
• Phylogeography
• Rabies/epidemiology
• Rabies/transmission
• Rabies virus/genetics
• Rural Population
• Zoonoses/epidemiology
• Zoonoses/transmission

• National Natural Science Foundation of China
• Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds KU Leuven
• VIROGENESIS
• Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
• National Key Research and Development Program of China
• European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme
• Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
• Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
• Horizon 2020

• disease ecology
• infectious disease
• landscape epidemiology
• landscape genetics
• pathogen dynamics

• emergence dating
• hantavirus
• mutational saturation
• phylogenetics
• virus evolution

Rabies virus kills tens of thousands of people globally each year, especially in resource-limited countries. Yet, there are genetically- and antigenically-related lyssaviruses, all capable of causing the disease rabies, circulating globally among bats without causing conspicuous disease outbreaks. The species richness and greater genetic diversity of African lyssaviruses, along with the lack of antibody cross-reactivity among them, has led to the hypothesis that Africa is the origin of lyssaviruses. This hypothesis was tested using a probabilistic phylogeographical approach. The nucleoprotein gene sequences from 153 representatives of 16 lyssavirus species, collected between 1956 and 2015, were used to develop a phylogenetic tree which incorporated relevant geographic and temporal data relating to the viruses. In addition, complete genome sequences from all 16 (putative) species were analysed. The most probable ancestral distribution for the internal nodes was inferred using three different approaches and was confirmed by analysis of complete genomes. These results support a Palearctic origin for lyssaviruses (posterior probability = 0.85), challenging the ‘out of Africa’ hypothesis, and suggest three independent transmission events to the Afrotropical region, representing the three phylogroups that form the three major lyssavirus clades.

Rabies virus kills tens of thousands of people globally each year and causes indescribable misery and family disturbance, especially in developing countries. Yet in much of the world there are related viruses, called lyssaviruses, which circulate among bats without causing conspicuous outbreaks. The greater diversity of African lyssaviruses has led to the hypothesis that Africa is the origin of these viruses. To test this hypothesis, the genetic data from 153 representative viruses from 16 available lyssavirus species from across the world dated between 1956 and 2015 were analysed. Statistical models were used to reconstruct the historical processes that lead to the contemporary distribution of these viruses. Our results support a Palearctic origin for lyssaviruses, not Afrotropic, and suggest three independent transmission events to Africa from the Palearctic region.

• Africa/epidemiology
• Animals
• Genetic Variation
• Genome, Viral
• Lyssavirus/classification
• Lyssavirus/genetics
• Lyssavirus/isolation & purification
• Lyssavirus/physiology
• Models, Statistical
• Nucleoproteins/genetics
• Phylogeny
• Phylogeography
• Rabies virus/genetics
• Rabies virus/physiology
• Rhabdoviridae Infections/epidemiology
• Rhabdoviridae Infections/virology
• Viral Proteins/genetics

• Royal Society of New Zealand
• Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency
• EU H2020

• epidemiology
• evolution
• geography
• phylogenetics
• transmission
• virus

• Chikungunya Fever/epidemiology
• Chikungunya Fever/transmission
• Chikungunya virus/genetics
• Communicable Diseases, Emerging/epidemiology
• Communicable Diseases, Emerging/transmission
• Disease Outbreaks
• Disease Transmission, Infectious
• Evolution, Molecular
• Genetic Variation
• Humans
• Influenza A virus/genetics
• Influenza, Human/epidemiology
• Influenza, Human/transmission
• Phylogeography
• Travel
• Virus Diseases/epidemiology
• Virus Diseases/transmission
• Viruses/genetics

• 260864 European Research Council
• U19 AI089674 NIAID NIH HHS
• U19AI089674 NIAID NIH HHS
• 106866/Z/15/Z Wellcome Trust
• European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme
• NIH/NIAID
• the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• RAPIDD program of the Science and Technology Directorate, Department of Homeland Security, and the Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health
• European Union Seventh Framework Programme
• Onderzoeksfonds KU Leuven/Research Fund KU Leuven

Many of the pathogens perceived to pose the greatest risk to humans are viral zoonoses, responsible for a range of emerging and endemic infectious diseases. Phylogeography is a useful tool to understand the processes that give rise to spatial patterns and drive dynamics in virus populations. Increasingly, whole-genome information is being used to uncover these patterns, but the limits of phylogenetic resolution that can be achieved with this are unclear. Here, whole-genome variation was used to uncover fine-scale population structure in endemic canine rabies virus circulating in Tanzania. This is the first whole-genome population study of rabies virus and the first comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of rabies virus in East Africa, providing important insights into rabies transmission in an endemic system. In addition, sub-continental scale patterns of population structure were identified using partial gene data and used to determine population structure at larger spatial scales in Africa. While rabies virus has a defined spatial structure at large scales, increasingly frequent levels of admixture were observed at regional and local levels. Discrete phylogeographic analysis revealed long-distance dispersal within Tanzania, which could be attributed to human-mediated movement, and we found evidence of multiple persistent, co-circulating lineages at a very local scale in a single district, despite on-going mass dog vaccination campaigns. This may reflect the wider endemic circulation of these lineages over several decades alongside increased admixture due to human-mediated introductions. These data indicate that successful rabies control in Tanzania could be established at a national level, since most dispersal appears to be restricted within the confines of country borders but some coordination with neighbouring countries may be required to limit transboundary movements. Evidence of complex patterns of rabies circulation within Tanzania necessitates the use of whole-genome sequencing to delineate finer scale population structure that can that can guide interventions, such as the spatial scale and design of dog vaccination campaigns and dog movement controls to achieve and maintain freedom from disease.

• RNA virus
• endemic
• phylodynamics
• rabies
• translocation
• zoonoses

Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of accounting for human mobility networks when modeling epidemics in order to accurately predict spatial dynamics. However, little is known about the impact these movement networks have on the genetic structure of pathogen populations and whether these effects are scale-dependent. We investigated how human movement along the aviation and commuter networks contributed to intra-seasonal genetic structure of influenza A epidemics in the continental United States using spatially-referenced hemagglutinin nucleotide sequences collected from 2003–2013 for both the H3N2 and H1N1 subtypes. Comparative analysis of these transportation networks revealed that the commuter network is highly spatially-organized and more heavily traveled than the aviation network, which instead is characterized by high connectivity between all state pairs. We found that genetic distance between sequences often correlated with distance based on interstate commuter network connectivity for the H1N1 subtype, and that this correlation was not as prevalent when geographic distance or aviation network connectivity distance was assessed against genetic distance. However, these patterns were not as apparent for the H3N2 subtype at the scale of the continental United States. Finally, although sequences were spatially referenced at the level of the US state of collection, a community analysis based on county to county commuter connections revealed that commuting communities did not consistently align with state geographic boundaries, emphasizing the need for the greater availability of more specific sequence location data. Our results highlight the importance of utilizing host movement data in characterizing the underlying genetic structure of pathogen populations and demonstrate a need for a greater understanding of the differential effects of host movement networks on pathogen transmission at various spatial scales.

The rapid, long-distance spread of human pathogens such as seasonal influenza A across modern transportation networks presents a tremendous challenge for public health. Previous work based on influenza-like illness reports has demonstrated that commuters play an important role in the transmission of influenza across the United States. However, genetic structuring of influenza populations within a single season has not previously been detected. Here, we use sequence data collected over multiple seasons to investigate how human movement along the aviation and commuter networks in the United States contributes to influenza transmission at the regional scale. We confirm that commuters can play an integral role in interstate influenza transmission, but found that this pattern was specific to the influenza A subtype under investigation. We additionally show that strong county-to-county commuter flows do not necessarily fall within state boundaries, emphasizing the need for more precise spatial data to be associated with publically available sequences. Our results demonstrate that genetic structure does exist for influenza populations during the course of a single season at the regional scale and highlight the need to incorporate host movement patterns when studying spatial population structure.

• Algorithms
• Humans
• Influenza A virus/genetics
• Influenza, Human/epidemiology
• Influenza, Human/transmission
• Phylogeny
• Transportation
• Travel
• United States/epidemiology

• R01 AI047498 NIAID NIH HHS
• T32 AI055404 NIAID NIH HHS

• Animal Migration
• Animals
• Anseriformes/virology
• Disease Reservoirs/virology
• Environmental Monitoring
• Gene Flow
• Genes, Viral
• Genetic Variation
• Host-Pathogen Interactions
• Humans
• Influenza A virus/genetics
• Influenza A virus/isolation & purification
• Mississippi
• North America
• Phylogeography
• Rivers
• Seasons

• HHSN266200700007C NIAID NIH HHS
• HHSN272200900007C NIAID NIH HHS
• U19 AI110819 NIAID NIH HHS

• Bat-borne
• Dog abundance
• Dog ownership
• Rabies
• Risk map
• Spillover

Anthropogenic impacts increasingly drive ecological and evolutionary processes at many spatio-temporal scales, demanding greater capacity to predict and manage their consequences. This is particularly true for agro-ecosystems, which not only comprise a significant proportion of land use, but which also involve conflicting imperatives to expand or intensify production while simultaneously reducing environmental impacts. These imperatives reinforce the likelihood of further major changes in agriculture over the next 30–40 years. Key transformations include genetic technologies as well as changes in land use. The use of evolutionary principles is not new in agriculture (e.g. crop breeding, domestication of animals, management of selection for pest resistance), but given land-use trends and other transformative processes in production landscapes, ecological and evolutionary research in agro-ecosystems must consider such issues in a broader systems context. Here, we focus on biotic interactions involving pests and pathogens as exemplars of situations where integration of agronomic, ecological and evolutionary perspectives has practical value. Although their presence in agro-ecosystems may be new, many traits involved in these associations evolved in natural settings. We advocate the use of predictive frameworks based on evolutionary models as pre-emptive management tools and identify some specific research opportunities to facilitate this. We conclude with a brief discussion of multidisciplinary approaches in applied evolutionary problems.

• agro-ecosystem
• biological control
• environment
• genetic modification
• pathogens
• pests
• productivity
• resistance
• species interactions
• weeds

Negative-sense RNA viruses comprise several zoonotic pathogens that mutate rapidly and frequently emerge in people including Influenza, Ebola, Rabies, Hendra and Nipah viruses. Acute respiratory distress syndrome, encephalitis and vasculitis are common disease outcomes in people as a result of pathogenic viral infection, and are also associated with high case fatality rates. Viral spread from exposure sites to systemic tissues and organs is mediated by virulence factors, including viral attachment glycoproteins and accessory proteins, and their contribution to infection and disease have been delineated by reverse genetics; a molecular approach that enables researchers to experimentally produce recombinant and reassortant viruses from cloned cDNA. Through reverse genetics we have developed a deeper understanding of virulence factors key to disease causation thereby enabling development of targeted antiviral therapies and well-defined live attenuated vaccines. Despite the value of reverse genetics for virulence factor discovery, classical reverse genetic approaches may not provide sufficient resolution for characterization of heterogeneous viral populations, because current techniques recover clonal virus, representing a consensus sequence. In this review the contribution of reverse genetics to virulence factor characterization is outlined, while the limitation of the technique is discussed with reference to new technologies that may be utilized to improve reverse genetic approaches.

• Reverse genetics
• Viral pathogen
• Negative sense RNA viruses
• Influenza A virus
• Ebola virus
• Rabies virus
• Hendra virus
• Nipah virus

• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Disease ecology
• Landscape genetics
• Malaria

• Glyco-protein
• India
• Phylogeny
• Rabies virus

• Animals
• Brazil
• Citrus sinensis/microbiology
• Cluster Analysis
• Crops, Agricultural
• DNA, Bacterial/chemistry
• DNA, Bacterial/genetics
• Ecology
• Genetic Structures
• Genetic Variation
• Genetics, Population
• Genotype
• Geography
• Insect Vectors/microbiology
• Microsatellite Repeats/genetics
• Plant Diseases/microbiology
• Species Specificity
• Xylella/genetics

Rabies continues to be a major public health problem in the Philippines, where 200–300 human cases were reported annually between 2001 and 2011. Understanding the phylogeography of rabies viruses is important for establishing a more effective and feasible control strategy.

We performed a molecular analysis of rabies viruses in the Philippines using rabied animal brain samples. The samples were collected from 11 of 17 regions, which covered three island groups (Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao). Partial nucleoprotein (N) gene sequencing was performed on 57 samples and complete glycoprotein (G) gene sequencing was performed on 235 samples collected between 2004 and 2010.

The Philippine strains of rabies viruses were included in a distinct phylogenetic cluster, previously named Asian 2b, which appeared to have diverged from the Chinese strain named Asian 2a. The Philippine strains were further divided into three major clades, which were found exclusively in different island groups: clades L, V, and M in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, respectively. Clade L was subdivided into nine subclades (L1–L9) and clade V was subdivided into two subclades (V1 and V2). With a few exceptions, most strains in each subclade were distributed in specific geographic areas. There were also four strains that were divided into two genogroups but were not classified into any of the three major clades, and all four strains were found in the island group of Luzon.

We detected three major clades and two distinct genogroups of rabies viruses in the Philippines. Our data suggest that viruses of each clade and subclade evolved independently in each area without frequent introduction into other areas. An important implication of these data is that geographically targeted dog vaccination using the island group approach may effectively control rabies in the Philippines.

Rabies continues to be a major public health problem in the Philippines. We conducted a molecular epidemiological study of rabies using the complete glycoprotein (G) gene from 235 animal brain samples collected in the Philippines between 2004 and 2010. We identified three major clades and two distinct genogroups in the Philippines. The three major clades L, V, and M were found specifically in the Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao island groups, respectively. Additionally, two minor genogroups were located in the Luzon island group. These data suggest that although human mediated transmission may have occurred, these virus clades evolved independently after a single introduction into each island group. All of the analyzed Philippine strains were clustered into Asian 2b, which diverged from the Chinese strain Asian 2a. No recent introduction of rabies into the Philippines from other countries was apparent. The elimination of rabies by 2020 is a national goal in the Philippines, necessitating urgent development of a more effective and feasible strategy for controlling rabies. Our findings indicate that a geographically targeted dog vaccination campaign may effectively control rabies in island nations such as the Philippines.

• Animals
• Genetic Variation/genetics
• Glycoproteins/genetics
• Nucleoproteins/genetics
• Philippines
• Phylogeny
• Rabies virus/classification
• Rabies virus/genetics
• Viral Proteins/genetics

We reconstructed the invasion history of the fungal virus Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV-1) in Europe, which infects the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica. The pattern of virus evolution was inferred based on nucleotide sequence variation from isolates sampled across a wide area in Europe at different points in time. Phylogeny and time estimates suggested that CHV-1 was introduced together with its fungal host to Europe and that it rapidly colonized the central range along the south facing slopes of the Alps and the north-east facing slopes of the Dinaric Alps. These central populations were the source for two waves of simultaneous invasions toward the southern Balkans and Turkey, as indicated by migration rates. Our results showed that the evolutionary scenarios for CHV-1 and C. parasitica were spatially congruent. As infection with CHV-1 reduces the pathogenicity of C. parasitica toward the chestnut tree, CHV-1 invasions of the newly established C. parasitica populations probably prevented the development of devastating chestnut blight epidemics in Europe. We propose that in this, and supposedly in other pathosystems, geographic, vegetation-related, demographic, economic, and political factors may help explain the correlated invasion pattern of a parasite and its host.

• Biological control
• Cryphonectria parasitica
• coalescent analysis
• host–parasite coevolution
• phylogenetic reconstruction
• time to the most recent common ancestor

• h5n1 avian influenza
• gene flow
• wombling
• vietnam

• Animals
• Birds
• Gene Flow
• Genetic Variation
• Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype/genetics
• Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype/pathogenicity
• Influenza in Birds/transmission
• Influenza in Birds/virology
• Models, Genetic
• Species Specificity
• Vietnam

• R24 HD050924 NICHD NIH HHS

Using DNA sequence data from pathogens to infer transmission networks has traditionally been done in the context of epidemics and outbreaks. Sequence data could analogously be applied to cases of ubiquitous commensal bacteria; however, instead of inferring chains of transmission to track the spread of a pathogen, sequence data for bacteria circulating in an endemic equilibrium could be used to infer information about host contact networks. Here, we show—using simulated data—that multilocus DNA sequence data, based on multilocus sequence typing schemes (MLST), from isolates of commensal bacteria can be used to infer both local and global properties of the contact networks of the populations being sampled. Specifically, for MLST data simulated from small-world networks, the small world parameter controlling the degree of structure in the contact network can robustly be estimated. Moreover, we show that pairwise distances in the network—degrees of separation—correlate with genetic distances between isolates, so that how far apart two individuals in the network are can be inferred from MLST analysis of their commensal bacteria. This result has important consequences, and we show an example from epidemiology: how this result could be used to test for infectious origins of diseases of unknown etiology.

• Bacteria/genetics
• DNA, Bacterial/genetics
• Likelihood Functions
• Social Support

Development and implementation of global animal disease surveillance has been limited by the lack of information systems that enable near real-time data capturing, sharing, analysis, and related decision- and policy-making. The objective of this paper is to describe requirements for global animal disease surveillance, including design and functionality of tools and methods for visualization and analysis of animal disease data. The paper also explores the potential application of techniques for spatial and spatio-temporal analysis on global animal disease surveillance, including for example, landscape genetics, social network analysis, and Bayesian modeling. Finally, highly pathogenic avian influenza data from Denmark and Sweden are used to illustrate the potential application of a novel system (Disease BioPortal) for data sharing, visualization, and analysis for regional and global surveillance efforts.

• Animal Diseases/epidemiology
• Animals
• Bayes Theorem
• Birds
• Data Interpretation, Statistical
• Denmark/epidemiology
• Disease Outbreaks/statistics & numerical data
• Epidemiological Monitoring/veterinary
• Geography, Medical/methods
• Geography, Medical/statistics & numerical data
• Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype
• Influenza in Birds/epidemiology
• Internationality
• Spatial Analysis
• Sweden/epidemiology

Emerging infectious diseases’ hotspots have been identified as multi-host and multi-pathogen systems often characterized in tropical ecosystems by an extensive wildlife/domestic/human interface. The pathogen communities shared by the wild and domestic populations at this interface reflect the historical epidemiological interactions between them. In a research framework using recent community ecology, evolutionary biology and molecular biology advances, this information can be used to identify potential pathways for future pathogen spill-over initiating the emergence process. In other words, an understanding of the mechanisms of pathogen transmission in a specific ecosystem can provide an interaction network between host populations defined by nodes and edges and characterized by the frequency, intensity and direction of the interactions with a direct input for targeted disease surveillance.

• parasite species
• host population
• rodent species
• human species
• jaccard index

• Global Health
• History, 19th Century
• History, 20th Century
• History, 21st Century
• Humans
• Rabies/economics
• Rabies/history
• Rabies/prevention & control
• Rabies Vaccines/administration & dosage
• Rabies Vaccines/economics
• Rabies Vaccines/history
• Vaccination

• Animals
• Europe
• Evolution, Molecular
• Hemorrhagic Disease Virus, Rabbit/classification
• Hemorrhagic Disease Virus, Rabbit/genetics
• Molecular Epidemiology/methods
• Phylogeny
• Rabbits

Understanding the role of humans in the dispersal of predominately animal pathogens is essential for their control. We used newly developed Bayesian phylogeographic methods to unravel the dynamics and determinants of the spread of dog rabies virus (RABV) in North Africa. Each of the countries studied exhibited largely disconnected spatial dynamics with major geo-political boundaries acting as barriers to gene flow. Road distances proved to be better predictors of the movement of dog RABV than accessibility or raw geographical distance, with occasional long distance and rapid spread within each of these countries. Using simulations that bridge phylodynamics and spatial epidemiology, we demonstrate that the contemporary viral distribution extends beyond that expected for RABV transmission in African dog populations. These results are strongly supportive of human-mediated dispersal, and demonstrate how an integrated phylogeographic approach will turn viral genetic data into a powerful asset for characterizing, predicting, and potentially controlling the spatial spread of pathogens.

At least 15 million doses of anti-rabies post-exposure prophylaxis are administered annually worldwide, and an estimated 55,000 people die of rabies every year. Over 99% of these deaths occur in developing countries, predominantly in Asia and in Africa where rabies is endemic in domestic dogs. Despite the global health burden due to rabies, little is known about the patterns of the spread of dog rabies in these endemic regions. We used recently developed Bayesian analytical methods to unravel the dynamics and determinants of the spatial diffusion of dog rabies viruses in North Africa based on viral genetic data. Our analysis reveals a combination of restricted spread across administrative borders, the occasional long-distance movement of rabies viruses, and a strong fit between spatial spread of the virus and road distances between localities. Together, these data indicate that by transporting dogs, humans have played a key role in the dispersal of a major animal pathogen. Our studies therefore provide essential new information on the transmission dynamics of rabies in Africa, and in doing so will greatly assist in future intervention strategies.

• Algeria/epidemiology
• Animals
• Computer Simulation
• Demography
• Dogs
• Evolution, Molecular
• Gene Flow/genetics
• Gene Flow/physiology
• Geography
• Humans
• Morocco/epidemiology
• Phylogeny
• Rabies virus/genetics
• Rabies virus/physiology
• Tunisia/epidemiology
• Zoonoses/epidemiology
• Zoonoses/transmission
• Zoonoses/virology

• 260864 European Research Council
• R01 GM080533 NIGMS NIH HHS
• R01 GM086887 NIGMS NIH HHS