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ISDS 2016 Conference Abstracts

What do we know about the behavior of animal rabies 
in Chile trough the last years?
Raul Alegria-Moran*1, 2, 3, Daniela Miranda1, Alonso Parra4, 3 and Lisette Lapierre1, 3
1Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Science, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile; 
2PhD Program in Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Science, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile; 3Emerging and Re-emerging 
Zoonoses Research Network, Santiago, Chile; 4Unit of Zoonosis and Vectors, Department of Environmental Health, Ministerio de 
Salud, Gobierno de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Objective
This study aims to analyze the evolution of the epidemiological 

behavior of rabies in Chile during the period 2003 to 2013, through 
the epidemiological characterization of a number of variables and 
description of spatial and temporal patterns of animal cases.

Introduction
Rabies is a zoonotic disease caused by an RNA virus from the 

family Rhabdoviridae, genus Lyssavirus. Worldwide distributed, 
control of rabies has been considered to be particularly amenable to 
a “One Health” strategy (1). In Chile, rabies was considered endemic 
in domestic dog population until the late 1960s, when a surveillance 
program was established, decreasing the number of human cases 
related to canine variants until the year 1972 (2). Rabies is recognized 
as a endemic infection in chiropterans of Chile and prompted the 
surveillance of the agent in this and other species (3).

Methods
An epidemiological characterization of the registered cases from 

the National Program for Prevention and Control of Rabies was 
carried. During the period 2003-2013, 927 cases were reported. 
Descriptive statistics and descriptive mapping, recording origin of the 
sample, number of cases per region, animal reservoir implicated and 
viral variant were performed. A spatial autocorrelation analysis was 
carried using Moran’s I indicator for the detection of spatial clusters 
(4), using the Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) statistics 
(5), at national and regional level of aggrupation (north, central and 
south zone). Temporal descriptive analysis was carried.

Results
927 positive cases were recorded. 920 (99.2%) cases came from 

passive surveillance, while 7 (0.8%) cases by active surveillance, total 
positivity was 77.02% and 1.37% respectively. Positivity was reported 
mainly in the central zone (88.1%), mainly in Valparaiso (19.1%), 
Metropolitana (40.6%) (Figure 1), Maule (11.8%) regions concentrated 
in urban centers. Main positive reservoirs were bats (99.8%), 
specifically Tadarida brasiliensis and viral variant 4 was the most 
commonly diagnosed. LISA test gives a Moran’s I indicator of 0.1537 
(p-value = 0.02) for the central zone (Table 1). Rabies tend to decrease 
in fall and winter season (2.9 cases vs 13 cases during summer).

Conclusions
Wildlife rabies in bats remains endemic in Chile, concentrated in 

urban areas. The main reservoirs are insectivorous bats. There is a 
significant spatial autocorrelation of animal rabies cases in the central 
zone of Chile. Results are relevant to the design of preventive and 
control measures.

Table 1. Moran’s I index and p-value for the three macro-zones.

Figure 1. Choropleth map of the distribution of animal rabies in Metropolitana 
region, Chile, between the years 2003 and 2013.

Keywords
animal rabies; zoonotic diseases surveillance; one health; spatial 
autocorrelation

Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge staff from the Rabies Laboratory from Instituto 
de Salud Pública (ISP), Chile.

References
1. WHO 2016. Rabies - Fact sheets, Media centre.
2. Favi, M. & Durán, J. 1991. Epidemiología de la rabia en Chile

(1929-1988) y perspectivas en mamíferos silvestres. Avances en
Ciencias Veterinarias, 6.

3. Favi, M., Bassaletti, Á., López, J., Rodríguez, L. & Yung, V. 2011.
Descripción epidemiológica del reservorio de rabia en murciélagos 
de la Región Metropolitana: Chile. 2000-2009. Rev Chil Infectol,  
28, 223-228.

4. Pfeiffer, D. U. & Stevens, K. B. 2015. Spatial and temporal epidemiological
analysis in the Big Data era. Prev Vet Med, 122, 213-220.

5. Pfeiffer, D., Robinson, T., Stevenson, M., Stevens, K., Rogers, D. & 365  
Clements, A. 2008. Spatial Analysis in Epidemiology, Oxford 
University Press.

*Raul Alegria-Moran
E-mail: ralegria@veterinaria.uchile.cl

Online Journal of Public Health Informatics * ISSN 1947-2579 * http://ojphi.org * 9(1):e163, 2017