Circulation of Group 2 Coronaviruses in a Bat Species Common to Urban Areas in Western Europe

Abstract

Fecal samples of 211 bats representing 13 different bat species from 31 locations in the Netherlands were analyzed for the presence of coronaviruses (CoV) using a genus-wide reverse transcription (RT)-polymerase chain reaction. CoVs are known for their high potential for interspecies transmission, including zoonotic transmission with bats as reservoir hosts. For the first time, a group 2 CoV was found in a bat, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, in Europe. This is of particular interest for public health as the reservoir host is a species that is common to urban areas in most of Europe and notorious for its close interactions with humans. Four verspertilionid bat species were found to excrete group 1 CoVs, viz. Myotis daubentonii, M. dasycneme, P. pipistrellus, and Nyctalus noctula. The last species is a newly identified reservoir. The overall prevalence was 16.9% and positive bats were found at multiple widespread locations. The circulating group 1 CoV lineages were rather species associated than location associated.

Antibodies against MERS Coronavirus in Dromedary Camels, Kenya, 1992–2013

“…The evolutionary origins of MERS-CoV and related viral species belonging to the genus Betacoronavirus clade C were attributed to insectivorous bats in Europe and Africa ( 2 – 4 ). Seroprevalence studies of livestock from diverse species showed that dromedary camels from Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar, Spain, and Egypt harbored antibodies against MERS-CoV antigens ( 5 – 8 ).…”

No Evidence of Coronavirus Infection by Reverse Transcriptase-PCR in Bats in Belgium

“…SARS CoV has a bat reservoir (Cui et al 2007), and the closest relative of MERS CoV (VM314/2008 betacoronavirus) was isolated from a Pipistrellus sp. bat in the Netherlands (Reusken et al 2010). The MERS CoV and VM314/2008 share 98% nucleotide identity in an 816-base pair (bp) fragment of the RNAdependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene and homologies in a 131-bp fragment of the spike receptor-binding domain Annan et al 2013).…”

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (Mers-CoV) – What is the Risk? A Review of Recent Studies

“…Similar results were obtained when conducting serological tests: pseudoparticle neutralization (ppNT), microneutralization (MNT) and ELISA for the presence of anti-MERS-CoV antibodies in camels sera acquired from the United Arab Emir-ates in 2005(Alexandersen et al, 2014 and the area of Egypt and Saudi Arabia in 2010(Hemida et al, 2013. In the seroepidemiological study of domestic livestock (sheep, goats, cattle, chicken) and dromedary camels from Saudi Arabia, it was shown that only dromedary camels have evidence of seropositivity to Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), suggesting an infection with a MERS-CoV-like virus.…”