Evolution
All extant rabies viruses appear to have evolved within the last 1500 years. Consequently, the emergence of rabies may have been contemporaneous with the extreme weather events of 535–536 and/or the eruption of Krakatoa.
There are seven genotypes of rabies virus. In Eurasia cases are due to three of these - genotype 1 (classical rabies) and to a lesser extent genotypes 5 and 6 (European bat lyssaviruses type-1 and -2). Genotype 1 evolved in Europe in the 17th century and spread to Asia, Africa and the Americas as a result of European exploration and colonization.
Read more about this topic: Rabies Virus
Famous quotes containing the word evolution:
“Historians will have to face the fact that natural selection determined the evolution of cultures in the same manner as it did that of species.”
—Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989)
“As a natural process, of the same character as the development of a tree from its seed, or of a fowl from its egg, evolution excludes creation and all other kinds of supernatural intervention.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Like Freud, Jung believes that the human mind contains archaic remnants, residues of the long history and evolution of mankind. In the unconscious, primordial “universally human images” lie dormant. Those primordial images are the most ancient, universal and “deep” thoughts of mankind. Since they embody feelings as much as thought, they are properly “thought feelings.” Where Freud postulates a mass psyche, Jung postulates a collective psyche.”
—Patrick Mullahy (b. 1912)