Serological Evidence ofLyssavirusInfection among Bats in Nagaland, a North-Eastern State in India

Abstract

Bats are known to be reservoirs of several medically important viruses including lyssaviruses. However, no systematic surveillance for bat rabies has been carried out in India, a canine rabies endemic country with a high burden of human rabies. Surveillance for rabies virus (RABV) infection in bats was therefore carried out in Nagaland, a north-eastern state in India at sites with intense human-bat interfaces during traditional bat harvests. Brain tissues and sera from bats were tested for evidence of infection due to RABV. Brain tissues were subjected to the fluorescent antibody test for detection of viral antigen and real-time reverse transcriptase PCR for presence of viral RNA. Bat sera were tested for the presence of rabies neutralizing antibodies by the rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test. None of the bat brains tested (n = 164) were positive for viral antigen or viral RNA. However, rabies neutralizing antibodies were detected in 4/78 (5·1%) bat sera tested, suggesting prior exposure to RABV or related lyssaviruses. The serological evidence of lyssaviral infection in Indian bats may have important implications in disease transmission and rabies control measures, and warrant extensive bat surveillance to better define the prevalence of lyssaviral infection in bats.

Detection of rabies virus in organs unrelated to the central nervous system of experimentally-inoculated vampire bats

“…obviously, the degree of resistance indicated by the presence of VNA does not necessarily always correlate with protective immunity. This has been observed under both free-living and experimental conditions (19,30,31) .…”

Preliminary study of Malaysian fruit bats species diversity in Lenggong Livestock Breeding Center, Perak: Potential risk of spill over infection

“…In Asia and Southeast Asia, the only detectable bat lyssavirus is Australian bat lyssavirus and Gannoruwa bat lyssavirus [ 15 , 17 ]. However, Cynopterus sphinx has been reported to demonstrate rabies virus neutralizing antibodies in India [ 18 ], and contact with wildlife reservoir host of rabies, in Africa, had resulted to spillover infection to susceptible African civet in Serengeti National Park Tanzania [ 19 ]. Cynopterus species is a common fruit bat of Peninsular Malaysia and was reported in our study with high capture rate, and preliminary nucleic acid detection shows a positive result of bat lyssaviruses in these species ( Cynopterus.…”

Kelelawar Megachiropetra Sebagai Reservoir Lyssavirus Di Provinsi Riau

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“…Lyssavirus juga terkonfirmasi positif pada spesies Pteropus medius di Sri Lanka (Gunawardena et al, 2016). Spesies R.leschenaultii terkonfirmasi positif RABV di bagian selatan China (Mani et al, 2017).…”