A preliminary investigation of exposure to rabies virus in selected wildlife in the Kruger National Park, South Africa

Rabies is a disease caused by members of the genus Lyssavirus in the family Rhabdoviridae. The disease is fatal to humans and other warm-blooded vertebrates, following infection, once clinical signs are apparent. Late in infection rabies virus is found in the saliva and is usually transmitted by the bite of an infected animal (Swanepoel 2004). In South Africa, two genetically distinct and epizootiological groups of rabies virus are found, namely the canid rabies biotype and mongoose rabies biotype (Mansvelt 1962; Nel et al. 1997).