Abstract
Bats are an important source of viral zoonoses, including paramyxoviruses. The paramyxoviral Pararubulavirus genus contains viruses mostly derived from bats that are common, diverse, distributed throughout the Old World, and known to be zoonotic. Here, we describe a new member of the genus Achimota pararubulavirus 3 (AchPV3) and its isolation from the urine of African straw-coloured fruit bats on primary bat kidneys cells. We sequenced and analysed the genome of AchPV3 relative to other Paramyxoviridae, revealing it to be similar to known pararubulaviruses. Phylogenetic analysis of AchPV3 revealed the failure of molecular detection in the urine sample from which AchPV3 was derived and an attachment protein most closely related with AchPV2—a pararubulavirus known to cause cross-species transmission. Together these findings add to the picture of pararubulaviruses, their sources, and variable zoonotic potential, which is key to our understanding of host restriction and spillover of bat-derived paramyxoviruses. AchPV3 represents a novel candidate zoonosis and an important tool for further study.
Highlights
Bats are an increasingly recognised source of zoonotic viruses that cause devastating disease outbreaks worldwide, including the recent Ebola virus outbreaks, Middle Eastern RespiratorySyndrome, and the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, as well as many viruses of unknown zoonotic potential [1,2,3,4,5]
The only pararubulavirus that was not originally isolated from bats is the Sosuga virus (SosV), which caused febrile systemic illness in a wildlife biologist after handling a wide variety of wildlife species. This patient history and the phylogenetic relationship of SosV with bat-derived pararubulaviruses suggested the infection had been contracted from bats, which was later confirmed by molecular detection of the virus in samples from Rousettus aegyptiacus bats [14], adding to the weight of evidence that Pararubulavirus is a bat-derived paramyxoviral genus, the members of which are capable of zoonotic infection
We described the isolation of an adenovirus and two previously unknown pararubulaviruses (AchPV1 and AchPV2) on Vero cells from a 72-strong sample batch of Eidolon helvum urine samples [5,11]
Summary
Bats are an increasingly recognised source of zoonotic viruses that cause devastating disease outbreaks worldwide, including the recent Ebola virus outbreaks, Middle Eastern RespiratorySyndrome, and the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, as well as many viruses of unknown zoonotic potential [1,2,3,4,5]. Achimota pararubulaviruses 1 and 2 (AchPV1 and AchPV2) were recently isolated from urine collected underneath bat roosts in Ghana, Africa, and the existence of neutralising antibodies in humans and morbid cross-species infections of laboratory animals suggests zoonotic infection with Achimota viruses is possible [11,12]. The only pararubulavirus that was not originally isolated from bats is the Sosuga virus (SosV), which caused febrile systemic illness in a wildlife biologist after handling a wide variety of wildlife species This patient history and the phylogenetic relationship of SosV with bat-derived pararubulaviruses suggested the infection had been contracted from bats, which was later confirmed by molecular detection of the virus in samples from Rousettus aegyptiacus bats [14], adding to the weight of evidence that Pararubulavirus is a bat-derived paramyxoviral genus, the members of which are capable of zoonotic infection
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