Materials and methods
The material for our research were rectal swabs from 108 wildlife
omnivorous and herbivorous animals collected from 2014 to 2018 in
eastern Poland (51.216667, 22.9). Rectal swabs were taken from the
following species of animals: common squirrels Sciurus vulgaris(n = 30), rats Rattus (n = 16), European hedgehogsErinaceus europaeus (n = 8), European roe deer Capreolus
capreolus (n = 6), red deer Cervus elaphus elaphus (n = 34),
European hares Lepus europaeus (n = 7), voles Apodemus
agrarius (n = 2), European hamsters Cricetus cricetus (n = 3),
and a
European
beaver Castor fiber (n = 2).
Swabs were collected from animals delivered to the State Veterinary
Laboratory in Lublin due to suspected rabies infection, in accordance
with the regulations on the control of infectious diseases in animals
(Polish Veterinary Inspection, 2015). Poland is still not free from
rabies; therefore, suspicious dead animals are tested for the presence
of this virus in state laboratories. The sampling procedure was carried
out in accordance with the legal recommendations described earlier
(Nowakiewicz et al., 2016) and did not require permission of the ethics
committee. Only samples with a negative virological result were tested.