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This study used epidemiological data of Chinese ferret-badger (CFB) rabies in eastern Taiwan, the Hualien County, from July 2013 to December 2020 to estimate its wave front spread rate. The first case of the CFB rabies virus in eastern Taiwan was detected in Zhuoxi Township in Hualien County on July 31, 2013. Our technique regressed TIME (months elapsed from the first case in Zhuoxi and the first case in each infected township invaded by the first case of CFB rabies) on DISTANCE (kilometers between locations of the first case in Zhuoxi and centroids of each infected township invaded by the first case of CFB rabies), using simple linear regression. The mean rate of wave front spread was 10.698 kilometers/year. The correlation between TIME and DISTANCE was R = 0.9273 at p = 0.0001. As CFB rabies has only occurred in China and Taiwan, studies on its epidemiology are extremely rare. This paper is the first study to estimate the wave front spread rate of CFB rabies in the world.

Ferret-badger (Melogale moschata) is a widely distributed and rarely studied species. Therefore, we sequenced its complete mitochondrial genome, which is circular in shape with 16,511 bp length and have a structure typical to mammals. There is 98.67% similarity when compared with the reported sequence (HM106328). It contained 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, and 1 control regions (D-loop). This study can provide novel molecular information and genetic diversity of ferret-badger.

A street rabies virus (RV) isolate, GXHXN, was obtained from brain tissue of rabid cattle in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China in 2009. GXHXN is the first isolate from cattle in China with its entire genome sequenced and is closely related to BJ2011E from horse in Beijing, WH11 from donkey in the Hubei Province, and isolates from dogs in the Guangxi and Fujian Provinces, with homologies of 97.6% to 99.6%. It is more distantly related to isolates from domestic cat, pig, Chinese ferret badger, and vaccine strains, with homologies of 83.1% to 88.0%.