Abstract
Many emerging RNA viruses of public health concern have recently been detected in bats. However, the dynamics of these viruses in natural bat colonies is presently unknown. Consequently, prediction of the spread of these viruses and the establishment of appropriate control measures are hindered by a lack of information. To this aim, we collected epidemiological, virological and ecological data during a twelve-year longitudinal study in two colonies of insectivorous bats (Myotis myotis) located in Spain and infected by the most common bat lyssavirus found in Europe, the European bat lyssavirus subtype 1 (EBLV-1). This active survey demonstrates that cyclic lyssavirus infections occurred with periodic oscillations in the number of susceptible, immune and infected bats. Persistence of immunity for more than one year was detected in some individuals. These data were further used to feed models to analyze the temporal dynamics of EBLV-1 and the survival rate of bats. According to these models, the infection is characterized by a predicted low basic reproductive rate (R0 = 1.706) and a short infectious period (D = 5.1 days). In contrast to observations in most non-flying animals infected with rabies, the survival model shows no variation in mortality after EBLV-1 infection of M. myotis. These findings have considerable public health implications in terms of management of colonies where lyssavirus-positive bats have been recorded and confirm the potential risk of rabies transmission to humans. A greater understanding of the dynamics of lyssavirus in bat colonies also provides a model to study how bats contribute to the maintenance and transmission of other viruses of public health concern.
Highlights
In the last ten years, many emerging RNA viruses have been detected in bat tissues [1]
We provide the first report on the temporal dynamics of lyssavirus and survival bat in a natural colony based on a long term (12 years) longitudinal cross-sectional study of the prevalence of European bat lyssavirus subtype 1 (EBLV-1) neutralizing antibodies and EBLV-1 RNA in samples of that species
Analysis of the cytochrome b gene demonstrated that the captured bats belonged to the species M. myotis
Summary
In the last ten years, many emerging RNA viruses have been detected in bat tissues [1]. Numerous bats are found infected each year (http://www.who-rabiesbulletin.org) and the serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus) appears to be the main victim of EBLV-1 infections in several European countries, according to data collected by passive surveillance [3,7,9] These viruses can cause a fatal illness, indistinguishable from classic rabies, in non-flying mammal species, including humans [3,10,11,12,13]. Little data are available on the spatio-temporal dynamics of the infection and how this virus influences the mortality rate in bat colonies [5] Studies addressing these issues require large databases, collected over the years, to monitor and assess local trends of rabies dynamics within a host population. Misunderstanding about the role of bats as reservoirs and vectors of lyssaviruses have sometimes led to efforts to extirpate bat populations and to indiscriminately reduce these colonies, in spite of being protected species in many countries [92/ 43 and 97/62 EU Directives, 19,20]
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