An investigation of Rabies virus existence on rodents by using new PCR primer pairs

Zoonotic diseases are the infections to be carried between human and other vertebrates. Rhabdoviruses belong to a virus family which could infect a wide range of host organism. It is important to find new molecular diagnostic tools and primers for the identification of the viruses to be able to make the molecular identification process faster and reveal new forms of the virus. Rodents are the primary mammals group that can uncontrollably go in and out from quarantine regions. Therefore, in this study, 242 Apodemus spp. (wood mouse) and Myodes glareolus (bank vole) specimens collected from 16 localities in province Zonguldak, Çaycuma district were used to scan brain tissues to determine RABV using hemi-nested PCR. Also, to determine RABV a new primer pairs were designed using already published sequences. According to results, eight specimens were showed positive bands for RABV. Those eight sequences blasted. But the sequences did not match according to the Blast result. The designed primer pairs provide positive bands on electrophoresis for positive control so that the primer pairs are new and can be used for following studies. With this study it was also tested whether rodents are the potential carriers for RABV since they are primarily prey source for carnivores, and domestic animals.