Abstract
BackgroundSince 1954, there have been in excess of 800 cases of rabies as a result of European Bat Lyssaviruses types 1 and 2 (EBLV-1, EBLV-2) infection, mainly in Serotine and Myotis bats respectively. These viruses have rarely been reported to infect humans and terrestrial mammals, as the only exceptions are sheep in Denmark, a stone marten in Germany and a cat in France. The purpose of this study was to investigate the susceptibility of foxes to EBLVs using silver foxes (Vulpes vulpes) as a model.ResultsOur experimental studies have shown that the susceptibility of foxes to EBLVs is low by the intramuscular (IM) route, however, animals were sensitive to intracranial (IC) inoculation. Mortality was 100% for both EBLV-1 (~4.5 logs) and EBLV-2 (~3.0 logs) delivered by the IC route. Virus dissemination and inflammatory infiltrate in the brain were demonstrated but virus specific neutralising antibody (VNA) was limited (log(ED50) = 0.24–2.23 and 0.95–2.39 respectively for specific EBLV-1 and EBLV-2). Foxes were also susceptible, at a low level, to peripheral (IM) infection (~3.0 logs) with EBLV-1 but not EBLV-2. Three out of 21 (14.3%) foxes developed clinical signs between 14 and 24 days post-EBLV-1 infection. None of the animals given EBLV-2 developed clinical disease.ConclusionThese data suggest that the chance of a EBLV spill-over from bat to fox is low, but with a greater probability for EBLV-1 than for EBLV-2 and that foxes seem to be able to clear the virus before it reaches the brain and cause a lethal infection.
Highlights
Since 1954, there have been in excess of 800 cases of rabies as a result of European Bat Lyssaviruses types 1 and 2 (EBLV-1, EBLV-2) infection, mainly in Serotine and Myotis bats respectively
This study was undertaken to assess the risk of spillover of a bat lyssavirus strain from a bat to a fox and causing rabies infection with EBLV-1 and EBLV2, and to investigate whether or not foxes can transmit EBLVs
The absence of detection of infectious particles or of viral RNA in saliva throughout the intracranial and intramuscular experiments undertaken in our study suggests that foxes may not be able to transmit EBLV-1 as virus was not detected in the saliva of clinically infected animals
Summary
Since 1954, there have been in excess of 800 cases of rabies as a result of European Bat Lyssaviruses types 1 and 2 (EBLV-1, EBLV-2) infection, mainly in Serotine and Myotis bats respectively. Members of classical rabies virus are found worldwide in Carnivora (both domestic and wild) and in Chiroptera in the Americas), ABLV in frugivorous and insectivorous bats (Australia) while the following genotypes Duvenhage (Africa), EBLV1 and 2 (Europe) are isolated in insectivorous bats. It has been shown [4], that genotypes of phylogroup 1 are pathogenic for mice when injected by intracranial and intramuscular routes, while Lyssaviruses from phylogroup 2 are less pathogenic by the intramuscular route
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