Incursion of European Bat Lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1) in Serotine Bats in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Lyssaviruses are an important genus of zoonotic viruses which cause the disease rabies. The United Kingdom is free of classical rabies (RABV). However, bat rabies due to European bat lyssavirus 2 (EBLV-2), has been detected in Daubenton’s bats (Myotis daubentonii) in Great Britain since 1996, including a fatal human case in Scotland in 2002. Across Europe, European bat lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1) is commonly associated with serotine bats (Eptesicus serotinus). Despite the presence of serotine bats across large parts of southern England, EBLV-1 had not previously been detected in this population. However, in 2018, EBLV-1 was detected through passive surveillance in a serotine bat from Dorset, England, using a combination of fluorescent antibody test, reverse transcription-PCR, Sanger sequencing and immunohistochemical analysis. Subsequent EBLV-1 positive serotine bats have been identified in South West England, again through passive surveillance, during 2018, 2019 and 2020. Here, we confirm details of seven cases of EBLV-1 and present similarities in genetic sequence indicating that emergence of EBLV-1 is likely to be recent, potentially associated with the natural movement of bats from the near continent

Transmission dynamics of lyssavirus in Myotis myotis : mechanistic modelling study based on longitudinal seroprevalence data

“…In European bats, six lyssaviruses have been so far identified, namely, European bat lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1) and 2 (EBLV-2), Bokeloh bat lyssavirus, West Caucasian bat virus, Lleida bat lyssavirus and Kotalahti bat lyssavirus [20]. Of these viruses, EBLV-1 is most frequently reported in continental Europe [20] and has recently been reported in Great Britain [30], with sporadic spillover events to humans and non-flying mammals [22][23][24]31]. Serotine bats, including Eptesicus serotinus and Eptesicus isabellinus, have been long considered the reservoir of EBLV-1.…”

Peculiarities of histological structure of some organs of serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus)

“…Many sources focused on diseases of bats and their diagnostics, in particular histopathological. Changes were examined during dermatitides (Boone et al, 2021;De Souza Suguiura et al, 2023), diseases of parasitic etiology (Adhikari et al, 2020;Fernandes et al, 2022;Gugnani & Denning, 2023), viral infections (Irving et al, 2021;Kohl et al, 2021;Jones et al, 2023), including paramixovirus (Haas & Lee, 2023), rabies (Folly et al, 2021), and infections of other etiology (Fritze et al, 2019;Colunga-Salas et al, 2021). Mentions of E. serotinus are found only in general reviews of pathologies.…”

Establishment of serological neutralizing tests using pseudotyped viruses for comprehensive detection of antibodies against all 18 lyssaviruses

“…Furthermore, infections with neurological signs in companion animals have also been reported, including cases of LBV from phylogroup II affecting dogs and cats [ 9 ], and WCBV, an unclassified strain, infecting cats [ 35 ]. It has become clear that “rabies free” countries [ 18 ], have endemic lyssaviruses circulating within bat populations, such as ABLV in Australia and EBLV-1, 2 in the UK [ 17 , 41 , 46 ]. In both nations humans have died from lyssavirus infection as a result of bat bites [ 20 , 22 ].…”

“…All lyssaviruses cause neurological disease in mice when infected intracranially under laboratory conditions [3,19]. To date, 17 [2,25,32]. These viruses are officially recognized by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses [24].…”