Whole-genome Sequencing and Phylogenetic Analysis of Rabies Virus samples from Jordan

Human fatalities caused by rabies are low in Jordan; however, domesticated animals often fall victim to rabid wild animals. The whole genomes of seven rabies positive brain samples from Jordan were sequenced. Five of them were from stray dogs and two from foxes. One dog sample from Al Quwaysimah city located in Amman governorate, was closely related to an Israeli strain belonging to Cosmopolitan ME1a clade. The genome sequences of the remaining 6 samples (4 from dogs and 2 from foxes) collected from different areas of Jordan were closely related to each other and clustered together with sequences from Iran and Turkey; all belong to Cosmopolitan ME2 clade.