Assessing the Evidence Supporting Fruit Bats as the Primary Reservoirs for Ebola Viruses

Leendertz, Siv Aina J.; Gogarten, Jan F.; Düx, Ariane; Calvignac‐Spencer, Sébastien; Leendertz, Fabian H.

doi:10.1007/s10393-015-1053-0

Cited by 118 publications

(124 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…There is conflicting evidence on whether EBOV is restricted to fruit bats (Leroy et al., 2005, Ogawa et al., 2015, Pourrut et al., 2007, Swanepoel et al., 1996) or if it is also present in insectivorous bat species (Han et al., 2016, Leendertz et al., 2016, Pourrut et al., 2009, Swanepoel et al., 1996). For example, Marí Saéz et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Adaptation of Ebola Virus during the West African Outbreak

Urbanowicz

McClure

Sakuntabhai

et al. 2016

Cell

192

188

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SummaryThe 2013–2016 outbreak of Ebola virus (EBOV) in West Africa was the largest recorded. It began following the cross-species transmission of EBOV from an animal reservoir, most likely bats, into humans, with phylogenetic analysis revealing the co-circulation of several viral lineages. We hypothesized that this prolonged human circulation led to genomic changes that increased viral transmissibility in humans. We generated a synthetic glycoprotein (GP) construct based on the earliest reported isolate and introduced amino acid substitutions that defined viral lineages. Mutant GPs were used to generate a panel of pseudoviruses, which were used to infect different human and bat cell lines. These data revealed that specific amino acid substitutions in the EBOV GP have increased tropism for human cells, while reducing tropism for bat cells. Such increased infectivity may have enhanced the ability of EBOV to transmit among humans and contributed to the wide geographic distribution of some viral lineages.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Adaptation of Ebola Virus during the West African Outbreak

Urbanowicz

McClure

Sakuntabhai

et al. 2016

Cell

192

188

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“…However, live Ebola virus has never been isolated from a bat in nature, which makes the picture less clear [13]…”

Section: Previous Ebola Outbreaksmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ebola outbreak, 2013–2016: old lessons for new epidemics

Coltart¹,

Lindsey

Ghinai³

et al. 2017

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

376

291

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Ebola virus causes a severe haemorrhagic fever in humans with high case fatality and significant epidemic potential. The 2013–2016 outbreak in West Africa was unprecedented in scale, being larger than all previous outbreaks combined, with 28 646 reported cases and 11 323 reported deaths. It was also unique in its geographical distribution and multicountry spread. It is vital that the lessons learned from the world's largest Ebola outbreak are not lost. This article aims to provide a detailed description of the evolution of the outbreak. We contextualize this outbreak in relation to previous Ebola outbreaks and outline the theories regarding its origins and emergence. The outbreak is described by country, in chronological order, including epidemiological parameters and implementation of outbreak containment strategies. We then summarize the factors that led to rapid and extensive propagation, as well as highlight the key successes, failures and lessons learned from this outbreak and the response.This article is part of the themed issue ‘The 2013–2016 West African Ebola epidemic: data, decision-making and disease control’.

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“…All ebolaviruses are members of the family Filoviridae , which also includes Lloviu cuevavirus (genus Cuevavirus ) and the severe human pathogen Marburg virus (genus Marburgvirus ). It is believed that bats serve as the primary reservoir for EBOV 34,35 . However, EBOV infections have only been confirmed in a small number of mammalian species and it is unclear whether the virus infects a wider range of animal hosts that have yet to be sampled.…”

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of Ebola virus: Insights from the 2013–2016 epidemic

Holmes

Dudas

Rambaut

et al. 2016

Nature

277

236

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Preface The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease in West Africa was of unprecedented magnitude and changed our perspective on this lethal but sporadically emerging virus. This outbreak also marked the beginning of large-scale real-time molecular epidemiology. Herein, we show how evolutionary analyses of Ebola virus genome sequences provided key insights into virus origins, evolution, and spread during the epidemic. We provide basic scientists, epidemiologists, medical practitioners, and other outbreak responders with an enhanced understanding of the utility and limitations of pathogen genomic sequencing. This will be crucially important in our attempts to track and control future infectious disease outbreaks.

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Assessing the Evidence Supporting Fruit Bats as the Primary Reservoirs for Ebola Viruses

Cited by 118 publications

References 47 publications

Human Adaptation of Ebola Virus during the West African Outbreak

Human Adaptation of Ebola Virus during the West African Outbreak

The Ebola outbreak, 2013–2016: old lessons for new epidemics

The evolution of Ebola virus: Insights from the 2013–2016 epidemic

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