Rabies is a fatal zoonotic disease spread worldwide. The most common sources of infection for all animals and humans are bites from dogs or bats. The aim of this degree project was to diagnose and determine the source of infection for 11 rabies samples from São Paulo State and Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Diagnosis was made through direct immunofluorescence assay, mouse inoculation and RT-PCR. The sources of infection were determined by sequencing 234 nucleotides of the 5? end of the N-gene and align these with homologous sequences retrieved from GenBank.

Rabies kan delas in i två former, en paralytisk och en furiös form. Immunförsvaret spelar med största sannolikhet en roll vid paralytisk form hos mus, genom till exempel T-lymfocyter, och skador ses i både CNS och PNS. Hur dessa T-celler verkar är dock fortfarande oklart, men det har visats att ett intakt immunförsvar ger den paralytiska formen hos mus. Vid avsaknad av paralys hos mus, står antagligen viruset för de främsta skadorna, som finns i hjärnan, men immunsuppression bidrar också.Hos människa visar studier tvetydiga resultat. Skador har setts både i CNS och PNS vid paralytisk form medan man vid furiös form har sett skador enbart i CNS.

Rabies kills about 55 000 people every year and more than 90% of infected humans are considered getting the disease from dog-bites. To control the disease and eventually eliminate human rabies, the most efficient and economic method is to keep the dog population vaccinated. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate the situation of canine rabies in two urban areas in Lilongwe, Malawi, where canine rabies is enzootic. In each area 200 household-interviews were conducted in September and October 2013. Focal points were awareness of the disease, human incidence as well as vaccination coverage in the dog population.

Rabies sprids vanligen genom ett bett av ett infekterat djur men det förekommer även andra spridningsvägar. Två av dessa är genom inandning av rabiesvirus, det vill säga aerosol spridning och via organtransplantation då donatorn är infekterad med rabies. Då det inte finns någon vedertagen behandlingsmetod för sjukdomen när symptom väl uppträtt måste sjukdomen förhindras innan detta sker. Rabies kan förhindras med vaccinering, både hos djur och människor. För att stoppa spridningen bör man fokusera på de viktigaste smittspridarna, bland annat fladdermöss och hundar.

Although known and feared for thousands of years, rabies remains a real and present threat to thousands of people, especially in low- and middle income countries. In India, rabies is an endemic disease, causing human deaths every year. The primary mode of transmission is through the bite of an infected dog. Fighting the disease in the dog population through vaccinations remains the most efficient way to eradicate the disease. The knowledge of rabies in India is unsatisfactory, as a lot of people lack awareness about the severity of the disease and the importance of washing the bitten area and seeking medical attention for post exposure prophylaxis when bitten by a dog.

West Nile Fever and West Nile Encephalitis are caused by the flavivirus West Nile Virus (WNV). West Nile Virus is now a dangerous threat for horses, birds and humans.

This literature study describes the ways in which the spread of rabies can be prevented in India, what guidelines are set and also which methods have proved most effective. Every year rabies causes the death of around 20 000 people in India, which makes the prevalence in the country the highest in the world. The main source for human infection is bite wounds from infected dogs. People and animals can be vaccinated both prophylactic and post-exposure prophylactic (PEP), despite this the disease continues to claim high number of victims. The majority of those dying are young men and children from the poorer part of the population. Knowledge among the Indian population on rabies and its transmission routes, wound care and vaccinations is very limited.

Rabies är en virussjukdom som smittar via saliv och orsakar hjärnhinneinflammation hos drabbade individer. Om viruset inte behandlas innan symptom bryter ut leder sjukdomen ofrånkomligen till döden. Rabies orsakar stora problem världen över, men jag har valt att fokusera på Afrika där sjukdomen orsakar cirka 24 000 humana dödsfall varje år. Värst drabbade är fattiga människor på landsbygden. Man räknar med att 99 % av alla humana dödsfall beror på smitta från domesticerade hundar och att 40 % av alla drabbade är barn under 15 år.

Dog bites pose a threat to public health globally and can lead to infection, disfigurement, incapacity, post-traumatic stress syndrome and even death. In geographical areas where rabies is endemic, bites from infected dogs account for over 90% of the human rabies cases. Children have been proven to be at a greater risk of being bitten by dogs and subsequently contracting rabies than adults. In this cross-sectional study, a school survey was undertaken in association with a rabies awareness campaign in India, to investigate the dog bite incidence and various risk factors associated with dog bites as well as assessing the knowledge of safe interaction with dogs among children in the age group 10-18 years. A total of 1295 questionnaires were collected. 43.2 % (n=556) out of the respondents were boys and 56.8 % (n=731) were girls with a mean age of 14 years.

Rabiesvirus är en allvarlig sjukdom globalt då minst 35 000 människor mister livet varje år på grund av den fatala sjukdomen. Idag finns inget botemedel mot rabiesvirus när sjukdomen brutit ut, det enda skyddet är vaccinering. Hur immunförsvaret reagerar på viruset, varför inte immunförsvaret klarar av att eliminera viruset och vad post-vaccinering innebär undersöks i det här arbetet. Rabiesvirus utsöndras i saliv och den vanligaste infektionsvägen för rabiesvirus är via bett från infekterad individ och för människa är hundbett största risken. När infektion har skett transporteras virus till centrala nervsystemet (CNS) via intraaxonal transport. Rabiesvirus är ett neurotropt virus och replikerar i CNS.

India is the country with the highest prevalence of rabies in the world, with about 20?000 human deaths occurring every year. The country also has a heavy burden of free roaming dogs, mainly because of the high amount of edible waste in the streets, which are the main hosts for the disease. Therefore to truly extinguish rabies, the main focus should be on the dogs, both stray dogs and owned. One method is to vaccinate all dogs against rabies.

ABSTRACT Tobacco Rattle Virus (TRV) is a soilborne plant virus. It is an important pathogen in potatoes where it causes spraing disease. This disease can lead to significant economical loss for the farmer, so it is imperative to get the proper diagnose before planting. TRV is spread naturally by free-living nematodes (Trichodorus and Paratrichodorus). Transference of TRV to a plant occurs when the virus-carrying nematodes feed on plant roots. The relationship between virus, nematodes and plants is complicated, and has to these days not been fully characterized. The diagnostic methods available today do not work sufficiently.

Rabies är en virussjukdom som årligen skördar många dödsoffer i framförallt utvecklingsländer i bland annat Afrika. Spridningen av sjukdomen till människor sker huvudsakligen via hundar och hundbett och flera olika strategier har tillämpats i försök att stävja smittspridning och hindra humana dödsfall. Övervakning av rabiessituationen ger verktyg att planera insatser och utveckling kring förenkling av diagnostiska metoder är under arbete. Övervakning i kombination med vaccinationskampanjer riktade mot afrikanska hundar i syfte att genom flockimmunitet i hundpopulationen hindra humana dödsfall har givit goda resultat. Det är dock viktigt att beakta att olika strategier ger varierande resultat beroende på i vilka miljöer de tillämpas samt att en tillräckligt stor andel av hundpopulationen måste immuniseras.

Nematode-transmitted plant viruses (such as nepoviruses) cause great economically losses in commercially important plants such as tomatoes, grapevines and raspberries all over the world. To avoid spread of the viruses the interest in mapping the viruses has increased. One of the important nepoviruses infecting European red raspberries (Rubus idaeus) is Tomato black ring virus (TBRV). TBRV has earlier been confirmed in raspberry samples from Belarus by ELISA and the aim of this bachelor degree project was to confirm these results by amplifying, cloning and sequencing the coat protein (CP) gene of the virus. In total eight viral cDNA samples, from two different raspberry samples, were amplified and sequenced.

Rift Valley Fever (RVF) is a disease caused by Rift Valley Fever virus (RVFV), which is an arbovirus. An arbovirus is a virus that is transmitted by an arthropod vector, in this case a mosquito. The virus is a member of the Phlebovirus genus in the family Bunyaviridae. It was first identified in the Rift Valley in Kenya in 1930. The disease is a zoonosis but mainly affects domestic ruminants inducing massive abortions and a high mortality among young animals.