Divergent bufavirus harboured in megabats represents a new lineage of parvoviruses

Abstract

Bufavirus is a recently recognized member of the genus Protoparvovirus in the subfamily Parvovirinae. It has been reported that human bufavirus was detected predominantly in patients with diarrhoea in several countries. However, little is known about bufavirus or its close relatives in nonhuman mammals. In this study, we performed nested-PCR screening and identified bufavirus from 12 megabats of Pteropus spp. in Indonesia. Furthermore, we determined nearly the full genome sequence of a novel megabat-borne bufavirus, tentatively named megabat bufavirus 1. Phylogenetic analyses showed that megabat bufavirus 1 clustered with known protoparvoviruses, including human bufavirus but represented a distinct lineage of bufavirus. Our analyses also inferred phylogenetic relationships among animal-borne bufaviruses recently reported by other studies. Recombination analyses suggested that the most common recent ancestor of megabat bufavirus 1 might have arisen from multiple genetic recombination events. These results characterized megabat bufavirus 1 as the first protoparvovirus discovered from megabats and indicates the high genetic divergence of bufavirus.

Novel Parvovirus Related to Primate Bufaviruses in Dogs

“…Bufaviruses were first identified in 2012 in Burkina Faso in fecal samples from a child with enteric signs (16). Similar bufaviruses have been subsequently identified in different species of domestic and wild animals (18)(19)(20). CBuV exhibited the most similarity in NS1 (66.9%-69.4% nt and 47.2%-51.4% aa) and VP1 (66%-68.2% nt and 62.5%-67.2% aa) to bufaviruses identified in primates.…”

“…Full-genome sequence alignment showed a high degree of sequence divergence, up to 58% overall nucleotide identity to most parvoviruses but not bufaviruses. CBuV was more closely related to bufaviruses identified in primates (61.6%-63.2% nt similarity), pigs (59.6% nt), and bats (58% nt) (16)(17)(18)(19)(20) and more distantly related to CPV-2 (45% nt) (online Technical Appendix Table, https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/EID/article/24/6/17-1965-Techapp1.pdf). The putative bufavirus NS1 start codon was located in a strong Kozak sequence, ACCATGG.…”

“…The prevalence of bufaviruses in human patients ranges from 0.3% to 4%, and their etiologic role in enteric or extraenteric diseases remains uncertain (16,17,(37)(38)(39)(40)(41). Bufaviruses have also been found in other mammalian hosts, including wild and captive nonhuman primates, swine, shrews, rats, bats, and fur seals (18)(19)(20)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46). Of interest, bufaviruses have also been detected in the serum and spleens of monkeys and in the spleens of shrews (18,44) and in a unique NOP sample of 955 human patients with lower respiratory tract signs (47), suggesting the possibility of extraintestinal or systemic infections.…”

Detection of adenovirus, papillomavirus and parvovirus in Brazilian bats of the species Artibeus lituratus and Sturnira lilium

“…Papillomaviruses (PVs), which are also dsDNA viruses, have also been reported in diverse bats species [17][18][19], but so far, they have not been reported in bats in Brazil. Parvoviruses, a family of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) viruses that exhibits the highest mutation rate among DNA viruses [9] have been reported worldwide, including in Brazil [20] and have been shown to be related to human-infecting parvoviruses [21][22][23].…”

Epidemiology of two human protoparvoviruses, bufavirus and tusavirus

“…BuV-like viruses have been found in wild and captive non-human primates as well as in swine, shrews, rats, bats and fur seals46121314151617. The detection of these viruses in sera of rhesus monkeys in the USA, and in the spleen of wild baboons and shrews in Zambia, suggests that BuV-like viruses may cause systemic infections1213.…”