Phylodynamics of vampire bat‐transmitted rabies in Argentina

Abstract

Common vampire bat populations distributed from Mexico to Argentina are important rabies reservoir hosts in Latin America. The aim of this work was to analyse the population structure of the rabies virus (RABV) variants associated with vampire bats in the Americas and to study their phylodynamic pattern within Argentina. The phylogenetic analysis based on all available vampire bat-related N gene sequences showed both a geographical and a temporal structure. The two largest groups of RABV variants from Argentina were isolated from northwestern Argentina and from the central western zone of northeastern Argentina, corresponding to livestock areas with different climatic, topographic and biogeographical conditions, which determined their dissemination and evolutionary patterns. In addition, multiple introductions of the infection into Argentina, possibly from Brazil, were detected. The phylodynamic analysis suggests that RABV transmission dynamics is characterized by initial epizootic waves followed by local enzootic cycles with variable persistence. Anthropogenic interventions in the ecosystem should be assessed taking into account not only the environmental impact but also the potential risk of disease spreading through dissemination of current RABV lineages or the emergence of novel ones associated with vampire bats.

Host–pathogen evolutionary signatures reveal dynamics and future invasions of vampire bat rabies

“…We sequenced the complete nucleoprotein (N) gene from 264 rabies isolates collected from Peruvian livestock between 1997 and 2012 and compared these to representative sequences from throughout the Americas. Because livestock infect neither each other nor bats, each isolate represents a single transmission event from bat to livestock, providing a window of insight into locally circulating bat viruses (14,15). A maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetic tree revealed three viral lineages in Peru, each of which shared a most recent common ancestor (MRCA) with viruses from other South American countries, consistent with multiple, independent introductions of VBRV into Peruvian bats (Fig.…”

“…Prior population genetic studies concluded that the low vagility and small home range sizes of vampire bats generate high genetic differentiation among populations (12,13). However, genetic lineages of VBRV are geographically widespread, implying that the virus overcomes the genetic isolation of its host through a currently unidentified dispersal mechanism (14,15). In carnivores, nonresident, nomadic individuals and seasonal variation in contact networks are thought to influence pathogen prevalence within populations, but the role of host social structure on pathogen spread at larger spatial scales is less understood (16,17).…”

Using phylogeographic approaches to analyse the dispersal history, velocity and direction of viral lineages — Application to rabies virus spread in Iran

“…While the first analysis consists of testing the impact of environmental factors on dispersal velocity, we have also used a new approach that aims at testing the impact of such factors on the dispersal direction, that Note: For each statistic, we report both the median value and 95% HPD interval. In addition to the Iranian RABV data set introduced in the present study, we also report dispersal statistics estimated for several previously published RABV data sets: bat RABV data sets from Argentina (Torres et al, 2014), Brazil (Vieira, Pereira, Carnieli, Tavares, & Kotait, 2013) and Peru (Streicker et al, 2016), raccoon and skunk RABV data sets from North America Kuzmina et al, 2013) and a dog RABV data set from northern Africa (Talbi et al, 2010). "n" indicates the number of sequences in each data set.…”

Demographic and environmental drivers of metagenomic viral diversity in vampire bats

“…The burden of vampire bat rabies is significant, with an estimated cost of US$50 million per year in livestock losses (Belotto, Leanes, Schneider, Tamayo, & Correa, 2005) and with an estimated force of infection of up to 960 rabies cases per 100,000 inhabitants in a hypothetical outbreak (Schneider et al, 1996). Demographic and ecological factors driving viral dispersal in vampire bats have been investigated specifically for rabies virus de Thoisy et al, 2016;Torres et al, 2014) but such questions have not yet been examined at the level of viral communities.…”