Abstract
Previous studies have shown that EBLV-1 strains exclusively hosted by Eptesicus isabellinus bats in the Iberian Peninsula cluster in a specific monophyletic group that is related to the EBLV-1b lineage found in the rest of Europe. More recently, enhanced passive surveillance has allowed the detection of the first EBLV-1 strains associated to Eptesicus serotinus south of the Pyrenees. The aim of this study is the reconstruction of the EBLV-1 phylogeny and phylodynamics in the Iberian Peninsula in the context of the European continent. We have sequenced 23 EBLV-1 strains detected on nine E. serotinus and 14 E. isabellinus. Phylogenetic analyses were performed on the first 400-bp-5’ fragment of the Nucleoprotein (N) gene together with other 162 sequences from Europe. Besides, fragments of the variable region of the phosphoprotein (P) gene and the glycoprotein-polymerase (G-L) intergenic region were studied on Spanish samples. Phylogenies show that two of the new EBLV-1a strains from Iberian E. serotinus clustered together with French strains from the North of the Pyrenees, suggesting a recent expansion southwards of this subtype. The remaining seven Iberian strains from E. serotinus grouped, instead, within the cluster linked, so far, to E. isabellinus, indicating that spatial distribution prevails over species specificity in explaining rabies distribution and supporting interspecific transmission. The structure found within the Iberian Peninsula for EBLV-1b is in concordance with that described previously for E. isabellinus. Finally, we have found that the current EBLV-1 European strains could have emerged only 175 years ago according to our evolutionary dynamics analyses.
Highlights
The European bat lyssaviruses 1 (EBLV-1) and 2 (EBLV-2) have caused human rabies in Europe, while more than 90% of the bat rabies cases have been reported from serotine bats (Eptesicus serotinus) infected by EBLV-1
Rabies is caused by viruses of the genus Lyssavirus, which includes so far fourteen species recognized by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), plus the recently proposed Lleida bat Lyssavirus (LLEBV) [1] and Gannoruwa bat lyssavirus (GBLV) [2]
We described the first EBLV-1 associated to E. serotinus South of the Pyrenees, and show how the inclusion of these new strains in phylogenetic and phylodynamic analyses together with the use of newly developed molecular markers have substantially improved our present knowledge of EBLV-1 molecular epidemiology in Europe and the Iberian Peninsula
Summary
Rabies is caused by viruses of the genus Lyssavirus, which includes so far fourteen species recognized by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), plus the recently proposed Lleida bat Lyssavirus (LLEBV) [1] and Gannoruwa bat lyssavirus (GBLV) [2]. The other two lyssaviruses described so far in Europe (West Caucasian bat virus, WCBV; and LLEBV) are hosted by the cave bat Miniopterus schreibersii (Family Miniopteridae) [1, 3]. Out of all of them, only EBLV-1 and EBLV-2 have caused rabies in humans, while more than 90% of the bat rabies cases have been reported from serotine bats (E. serotinus) infected by EBLV-1 [4]. The first one is found in an East-west axis from Ukraine to the north of France, while EBLV-1b is reported from France, southern Germany and the Netherlands [5]. EBLV-1a has been recently described from Southern France [6]. The evolutionary relationships among these viral subtypes in Western Europe are only partially known and previous attempts of evolutionary analyses [7] were hampered either by uneven available sampling or the dearth of molecular markers
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