Abstract:
This report describes four suspected rabies cases in domestic dogs that were involved in
human exposures. In all these cases, the animals were buried for substantial times before
rabies testing was performed. Animal rabies is endemic in South Africa and domestic dogs
are the main vector for transmission to humans. Diagnosis of rabies in humans is complicated,
and diagnosis in the animal vector can provide circumstantial evidence to support clinical
diagnosis of rabies in humans. The gold standard diagnostic method, fluorescent antibody
test (FAT), only delivers reliable results when performed on fresh brain material and therefore
decomposed samples are rarely submitted for diagnostic testing. Severely decomposed brain
material was tested for the presence of rabies virus genomic material using a quantitative
real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (q-real-time RT-PCR) assay
when conventional molecular methods were unsuccessful. This may be a useful tool in the
investigation of cases where the opportunity to sample the suspected animals post mortem was
forfeited and which would not be possible with conventional testing methodologies because
of the decomposition of the material.
