Abstract
Bats are an important reservoir for zoonotic viruses. To date, only three RVA strains have been reported in bats in Kenya and China. In the current study we investigated the genetic diversity of RVAs in fecal samples from 87 straw-colored fruit bats living in close contact with humans in Cameroon using viral metagenomics. Five (near) complete RVA genomes were obtained. A single RVA strain showed a partial relationship with the Kenyan bat RVA strain, whereas the other strains were completely novel. Only the VP7 and VP4 genes showed significant variability, indicating the occurrence of frequent reassortment events. Comparing these bat RVA strains with currently used human RVA screening primers indicated that most of the novel VP7 and VP4 segments would not be detected in routine epidemiological screening studies. Therefore, novel consensus screening primers were developed and used to screen samples from infants with gastroenteritis living in close proximity with the studied bat population. Although RVA infections were identified in 36% of the infants, there was no evidence of zoonosis. This study identified multiple novel bat RVA strains, but further epidemiological studies in humans will have to assess if these viruses have the potential to cause gastroenteritis in humans.
Highlights
A rich but, until recently, underappreciated reservoir of emergent viruses are bats
Phylogenetic analysis showed that strains MSLH14 and MYAS33, sampling sites were more than 400 km apart, shared the same genotype constellation (G3-P[x]-I8-R3-C3-M3-A9-N3-T3-E3-H6) except for the P genotype which was P[3] for MSLH14 and P[10] for MYAS33
All the obtained sequences were highly divergent from established genotypes and were submitted to the Rotavirus Classification Working group (RCWG) for novel genotype assignments and to GenBank
Summary
A rich but, until recently, underappreciated reservoir of emergent viruses are bats. They make up to 20% of the ∼5,500 known terrestrial species of mammals and are the second most abundant mammals after rodents. To further study the genomics of RVA in bats and their zoonotic potential in humans, we screened stool samples of straw-colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) living in close proximity with humans in the South West Region of Cameroon (Fig. 1), as well as samples from infants with gastroenteritis. Our choice of this region is due to the fact that bats are considered a delicacy and the species sampled are the most commonly eaten bat species in these localities
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