Twenty years of active bat rabies surveillance in Germany: a detailed analysis and future perspectives

Schatz, Juliane; Ohlendorf, B.; Busse, Peter; Pelz, Gerrit; Dolch, D.; Teubner, Jens; Encarnação, Jorge A.; Mühle, Ralf-Udo; Fischer, Melina; Hoffmann, Bernd; Kwasnitschka, Linda; Balkema‐Buschmann, Anne; Mettenleiter, Thomas C.; Müller, Thomas; Freuling, Conrad Martin

doi:10.1017/s0950268813002185

Cited by 37 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…While the detection of EBLV-1 antibodies is frequently reported in field bat studies, the mortality of numerous bats from one site is unusually reported. The detection of viral RNA and viable virus in oropharyngeal swabs that we reported in the study is in accordance with previous studies [16]. Repeated detection of viral RNA in saliva swabs from recaptured bats was not observed in this study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…We showed here a high detection rate of neutralising EBLV-1 antibodies in the colony, with 49% of seroconverting bats. The detection of EBLV-1 virus-neutralizing antibodies is frequent in bats [16, 18], with a seroprevalence varying according to the site location, species and time. The high rate of seropositive bats in this study is probably indicative of an efficient virus transmission coupled to a rapid circulation of EBLV-1 in the colony.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bat rabies surveillance in France: first report of unusual mortality among serotine bats

Servat

Wasniewski

Gaillard³

et al. 2017

BMC Vet Res

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BackgroundRabies is a fatal viral encephalitic disease that is caused by lyssaviruses which can affect all mammals, including human and bats. In Europe, bat rabies cases are attributed to five different lyssavirus species, the majority of rabid bats being attributed to European bat 1 lyssavirus (EBLV-1), circulating mainly in serotine bats (Eptesicus serotinus). In France, rabies in bats is under surveillance since 1989, with 77 positive cases reported between 1989 and 2016.Case presentationIn the frame of the bat rabies surveillance, an unusual mortality of serotine bats was reported in 2009 in a village in North-East France. Six juvenile bats from an E. serotinus maternity colony counting ~200 individuals were found to be infected with EBLV-1. The active surveillance of the colony by capture sessions of bats from July to September 2009 showed a high detection rate of neutralising EBLV-1 antibodies (≈ 50%) in the colony. Moreover, one out of 111 animals tested was found to shed viable virus in saliva, while lyssavirus RNA was detected by RT-PCR for five individuals.ConclusionThis study demonstrated that the lyssavirus infection in the serotine maternity colony was followed by a high rate of bat rabies immunity after circulation of the virus in the colony. The ratio of seropositive bats is probably indicative of an efficient virus transmission coupled to a rapid circulation of EBLV-1 in the colony.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12917-017-1303-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bat rabies surveillance in France: first report of unusual mortality among serotine bats

Servat

Wasniewski

Gaillard³

et al. 2017

BMC Vet Res

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“…In Germany, six rabies cases in Daubenton’s bats have been typed as EBLV-2 [33,34,35,41], and five genome sequences were available to be included in this study. Notably, only one case was detected in the frame of routine rabies surveillance, whilst the other five isolates were only found during enhanced surveillance programmes targeting all dead found bats [34].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular Epidemiology and Evolution of European Bat Lyssavirus 2

McElhinney

Marston

Wise

et al. 2018

IJMS

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Bat rabies cases in Europe are mainly attributed to two lyssaviruses, namely European Bat Lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1) and European Bat Lyssavirus 2 (EBLV-2). Prior to the death of a bat worker in Finland in 1985, very few bat rabies cases were reported. Enhanced surveillance in the two subsequent years (1986–1987) identified 263 cases (more than a fifth of all reported cases to date). Between 1977 and 2016, 1183 cases of bat rabies were reported, with the vast majority (>97%) being attributed to EBLV-1. In contrast, there have been only 39 suspected cases of EBLV-2, of which 34 have been confirmed by virus typing and presently restricted to just two bat species; Myotis daubentonii and Myotis dasycneme. The limited number of EBLV-2 cases in Europe prompted the establishment of a network of European reference laboratories to collate all available viruses and data. Despite the relatively low number of EBLV-2 cases, a large amount of anomalous data has been published in the scientific literature, which we have here reviewed and clarified. In this review, 29 EBLV-2 full genome sequences have been analysed to further our understanding of the diversity and molecular evolution of EBLV-2 in Europe. Analysis of the 29 complete EBLV-2 genome sequences clearly corroborated geographical relationships with all EBLV-2 sequences clustering at the country level irrespective of the gene studied. Further geographical clustering was also observed at a local level. There are high levels of homogeneity within the EBLV-2 species with nucleotide identities ranging from 95.5–100% and amino acid identities between 98.7% and 100%, despite the widespread distribution of the isolates both geographically and chronologically. The mean substitution rate for EBLV-2 across the five concatenated genes was 1.65 × 10−5, and evolutionary clock analysis confirms the slow evolution of EBLV-2 both between and within countries in Europe. This is further supported by the first detailed EBLV-2 intra-roost genomic analysis whereby a relatively high sequence homogeneity was found across the genomes of three EBLV-2 isolates obtained several years apart (2007, 2008, and 2014) from M. daubentonii at the same site (Stokesay Castle, Shropshire, UK).

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“…These conclusions may differ from that found by other authors in other countries where the lack of findings suggests the absence of an active rabies infection (Mani et al, 2017). Thereby, active bat surveillance for RABV in other countries has also reported a very low prevalence of viral antigen or nucleic acid in healthy bat populations (Picard-Meyer et al, 2011;Nokireki et al, 2013;Ellison et, 2014;Schatz et al, 2014) The lack of a sampling with longer duration and/ or with greater expansion of the search area could be a limiting factor of this study for the lack of positive results. Also as a limitation of the study, a larger number of specimens could have been sent for diagnosis, which would increase the chance of detection.…”

Section: Carollia Perspicillata D Rotundus and A Lituratusmentioning

confidence: 94%

Serological Survey of Rabies Virus Infection among Bats in Brazil

Horta

Oliveira

Miranda

et al. 2018

VR&R

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Rabies is a disease caused by a virus belonging to the family Rhabdoviridae, genus Lyssavirus (RABV), and is characterized as a progressive and acute encephalitis that presents high lethality. Between 2002 and 2012, 2149 wild animals were found positive for RABV in Brazil where 79% were associated with the aerial cycle of the disease. As part of the active surveillance of rabies in Brazil, the objective of this study was to investigate the presence of RABV infection in bats captured in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro city. Forty-four bats were tested for RABV at Institute Jorge Vaitsman (IJV), reference laboratory for rabies in Rio de Janeiro State. Of the individuals captured and sent for the diagnosis of rabies, a total of 15 were identified as being hematophagous, all of them belonging to the species Desmodus rotundus. Twenty-four individuals were considered as frugivorous, four as insectivores and one individual (Lonchophylla peracchii) identified as having a pollen/ nectar feeding habit. All specimen sent to RABV diagnosis presented negative results. Considering the active surveillance for RABV in Brazil, studies of fauna survey with serological characterization are important in the strengthening of epidemiological surveillance and protection of human life.

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Twenty years of active bat rabies surveillance in Germany: a detailed analysis and future perspectives

Cited by 37 publications

References 37 publications

Bat rabies surveillance in France: first report of unusual mortality among serotine bats

Bat rabies surveillance in France: first report of unusual mortality among serotine bats

Molecular Epidemiology and Evolution of European Bat Lyssavirus 2

Serological Survey of Rabies Virus Infection among Bats in Brazil

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