Human Betacoronavirus 2c EMC/2012–related Viruses in Bats, Ghana and Europe

Abstract

We screened fecal specimens of 4,758 bats from Ghana and 272 bats from 4 European countries for betacoronaviruses. Viruses related to the novel human betacoronavirus EMC/2012 were detected in 46 (24.9%) of 185 Nycteris bats and 40 (14.7%) of 272 Pipistrellus bats. Their genetic relatedness indicated EMC/2012 originated from bats.

No Evidence of Coronavirus Infection by Reverse Transcriptase-PCR in Bats in Belgium

“…reported by Annan et al (2013). In that study, 36.6% of Nathusius's pipistrelles (Pipistrellus nathusii) were positive for MERS CoV-related viruses, whereas only 2.4% of common pipistrelles were positive.…”

“…VM314-related viruses were detected in 15% of fecal samples of Pipistrellus spp. in Europe, including Ukraine and Romania (Annan et al 2013). Lau et al (2013) suggest that MERS CoV has diverged from European bat coronaviruses.…”

“…bat in the Netherlands (Reusken et al 2010). The MERS CoV and VM314/2008 share 98% nucleotide identity in an 816-base pair (bp) fragment of the RNAdependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene and homologies in a 131-bp fragment of the spike receptor-binding domain Annan et al 2013). VM314-related viruses were detected in 15% of fecal samples of Pipistrellus spp.…”

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS): The Emerging Zoonoses

“…Thus, bats are thought to be natural hosts of this virus. This virusis closely related to the Tylonycteris bat coronavirus HKU4 and Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5 and therefore considered to belong to the same species by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) (Annan et al, 2013). Its genomes are phylogenetically classified into two clades, Clades A and B.…”

Tissue Distribution of the Mers-Coronavirus Receptor in Bats

“…The dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) has been shown to be the reservoir host for primary human infections 2-8 , although other susceptible animals 9-11 , including bats 12,13 , are suspected also to be hosts for this virus. MERS-like-CoVs have been sequenced from bat samples, mainly from insectivorous bats, but they have not yet been successfully isolated [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] . Screening of over 5000 insectivorous bats from Ghana, Ukraine, Romania, Germany, and the Netherlands showed that MERS-CoV-like viruses were detected in 24.9% of Nycteris bats and 14.7% of Pipistrelle bats 17 .…”