Active surveillance for antibodies confirms circulation of lyssaviruses in Palearctic bats

Abstract

Background Palearctic bats host a diversity of lyssaviruses, though not the classical rabies virus (RABV). As surveillance for bat rabies over the Palearctic area covering Central and Eastern Europe and Siberian regions of Russia has been irregular, we lack data on geographic and seasonal patterns of the infection. Results To address this, we undertook serological testing, using non-lethally sampled blood, on 1027 bats of 25 species in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia and Slovenia between 2014 and 2018. The indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) detected rabies virus anti-glycoprotein antibodies in 33 bats, giving an overall seroprevalence of 3.2%. Bat species exceeding the seroconversion threshold included Myotis blythii, Myotis gracilis, Myotis petax, Myotis myotis, Murina hilgendorfi, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum and Vespertilio murinus. While Myotis species (84.8%) and adult females (48.5%) dominated in seropositive bats, juveniles of both sexes showed no difference in seroprevalence. Higher numbers tested positive when sampled during the active season (10.5%), as compared with the hibernation period (0.9%). Bat rabies seroprevalence was significantly higher in natural habitats (4.0%) compared with synanthropic roosts (1.2%). Importantly, in 2018, we recorded 73.1% seroprevalence in a cave containing a M. blythii maternity colony in the Altai Krai of Russia. Conclusions Identification of such “hotspots” of non-RABV lyssavirus circulation not only provides important information for public health protection, it can also guide research activities aimed at more in-depth bat rabies studies.

A Global Perspective on Oral Vaccination of Wildlife Against Rabies

“…), mongooses, and raccoon dogs, while others await documentation (Karunanayake et al 2014;Shih et al 2018;Shulpin et al 2018). Several lyssavirus species have also been detected, but surveillance among bats is poor throughout the continent (Mani et al 2017;Chen et al 2018;Hsu et al 2019;Seidlova et al 2020). Despite the seemingly rather widespread occurrence of wildlife rabies, the only country in Asia to utilize ORV with V-RG vaccine-laden baits for control among mesocarnivores is South Korea, officially known as the Republic of Korea (ROK).…”

Phylogeographic Aspects of Bat Lyssaviruses in Europe: A Review

“…In Europe bat lyssaviruses (Fig. 1) were detected in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Hungary, Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Russia [19,21,44,45,46,47,48,49]. During the last two decades, previously unknown lyssaviruses were isolated as follows: WCBV in 2002 on the European side of the Caucasus Mts.…”

“…Two superfamilies (Rhinolophoidea and Vespertilionoidea) are of particular interest in Europe because their representatives are the main reservoir of lyssaviruses. The greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) (Rhinolophidae, Rhinolophoidea), and the Vespertilionoidea species Greater mouseeared bat (Myotis myotis), Lesser mouse-eared bat (M. blythii), Natterer's bat (M. nattereri), Serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus), Meridional serotine (E. isabellinus), Common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus), Nathusius's pipistrelle (P. nathusii), Brown long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus), Common noctule (Nyctalus noctula), Parti-coloured bat (Vesperilio murinus) (Vespertilionidae), Common bent-wing bat (Miniopterus schreibersii) (Miniopteridae), European free-tailed bat (Tadarida teniotis) (Molossidae) have all been documented as being infected by EBLV-1 [47,48,72,73,74]. Regardless of the high number of bat hosts recorded for EBLV-1, EBVL-2 is restricted to Myotis daubentonii and M. dasycneme [44,46].…”

Phylogeographic Aspects of Bat Lyssaviruses in Europe: A Review

“…In Europe, bat lyssaviruses ( Figure 1 ) were detected in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Russia [ 19 , 21 , 35 , 38 , 69 , 70 , 71 ]. During the last two decades, previously unknown lyssaviruses were isolated as follows: WCBV in 2002 on the European side of the Caucasus Mts.…”

“…Two superfamilies (Rhinolophoidea and Vespertilionoidea) are of particular interest in Europe because their representatives are the main reservoir of lyssaviruses. The greater horseshoe bat ( Rhinolophus ferrumequinum ) (Rhinolophidae, Rhinolophoidea) and the Vespertilionoidea species Greater mouse-eared bat ( Myotis myotis) , Lesser mouse-eared bat ( M. blythii ), Natterer’s bat ( M. nattereri ), Serotine bat ( Eptesicus serotinus ), Meridional serotine ( E. isabellinus ), Common pipistrelle ( Pipistrellus pipistrellus ), Nathusius’s pipistrelle ( P. nathusii ), Brown long-eared bat ( Plecotus auritus ), Common noctule ( Nyctalus noctula ), Parti-coloured bat ( Vesperilio murinus ) (Vespertilionidae), Common bent-wing bat ( Miniopterus schreibersii ) (Miniopteridae), and European free-tailed bat ( Tadarida teniotis ) (Molossidae) have all been documented as being infected by EBLV-1 [ 36 , 37 , 38 , 40 , 71 ]. The virus was also isolated from the Egyptian fruit bat ( Rousettus aegyptiacus ) (Pteropodidae) in a Dutch zoo [ 53 ].…”