Arctic rabies virus

Arctic rabies virus is a strain of rabies virus that circulates throughout the arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Russia. The Arctic fox is the main host. Rabies virus belongs to the family Rhabdoviridae and the genus Lyssavirus. Arctic rabies virus represents one of four genotypes of rabies, all of which have been shown to adapt to different hosts which include fruit- and insect-eating bats and the Arctic fox. Arctic rabies viruses circulating in Arctic countries are phylogenetically related to rabies viruses in India. The Indian arctic-like rabies virus is referred to as Arctic/Arctic-like (AL) lineage. This lineage accounts for the type circulating across almost all of India. Using phylogenetic analysis and Bayesian methods, the Indian viruses emerged from a common progenitor within the last 40 years. The Arctic-AL lineage emerged within the last 200 years, a time-frame that coincides with the invasion of Canada by the clade.