Abstract：To found out the background of rabies in yellow mongooses facing the damager of spread in wildlife, we conducted the surveillance of rabies in yellow mongooses and ferret badgers in Jiangxi province. Yellow mongoose heads and ferret badger heads were randomly collected in Jiangxi province. The samples were detected by immunofluorescence assay method (FAT) and rabies virus was isolated through Mouse Inoculation Test (MIT). Full genome of N gene and G gene were amplified by RT-PCR and sequenced. No positive samples were found from 1 102 yellow mongooses. Four positive samples were identified from ferret badgers with positive ratio as 1.9% (4/210). Four rabies virus strains were isolated (JX12-64, JX12-67, JX12-102 and JX12-234) through MIT. The nucleotide of N and G gene between the four isolates were 99.6%~100% and 99.7%~100%, comparing with other ferret badger rabies viruses in Zhejiang and Jiangxi province, the homology were 96.0%~98.9% and 98.7%~99.1%; comparing with rabies viruses in Zhejiang province, the homology were 88.2%~88.8% and 87.6%~87.7%. The results showed that there is no rabies virus positive specimen and means no rabies epidemic in yellow mongooses, comparing to the high incidence of rabies in ferret badgers. These data indicate a clear background that there is no spread of rabies in yellow mongoose population. Although ferret badgers and yellow mongooses are nocturnal animals, the probability of rabies transmission in ferret badgers and yellow mongooses is very low. Further surveillance is needed to track wildlife rabies in the field.
2012, Vol. 28 
