ANIMAL RABIES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

Rabies, a neglected viral zoonosis disease, impose a major public health and veterinary importance. There is limited attention to the role of wild animals as sylvatic reservoirs of the rabies virus. Thus, this systematic review aims to identify various types of animals with rabies infection, determine the prevalence of rabies virus in animals, and identify the high-risk animal that could contribute to human rabies. A systematic search was performed in the PubMed and Web of Science databases for papers on rabies in animals published from 2015 until 2019. The articles were analyzed on the prevalence of rabies infection among the animal which ranges from 0% up to 74.16%. The highest was dogs with 0.02% to 74.16% followed by fox 52.93% up to 70.1%. The other two animals namely camel and sheep/goat revealed more than 50% of rabies prevalence of 59.7% and 57.1% respectively. This study shows that the rabies prevalence in the animal varies, and dogs still have the highest prevalence as the leading causes of rabies transmission to the human. Dog and fox are the most common animal with rabies in our systematic review. Thus, domestic animals that are kept as pets especially dogs should be properly vaccinated against rabies. Meanwhile, avoidance or extra cautious while handling wildlife animals should be of primary importance.