Bat Coronaviruses and Experimental Infection of Bats, the Philippines - EID CDC Volume 16, Number 8–August 2010

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Volume 16, Number 8–August 2010
Research
Bat Coronaviruses and Experimental Infection of Bats, the Philippines
Shumpei Watanabe, Joseph S. Masangkay, Noriyo Nagata, Shigeru Morikawa, Tetsuya Mizutani, Shuetsu Fukushi, Phillip Alviola, Tsutomu Omatsu, Naoya Ueda, Koichiro Iha, Satoshi Taniguchi, Hikaru Fujii, Shumpei Tsuda, Maiko Endoh, Kentaro Kato, Yukinobu Tohya, Shigeru Kyuwa, Yasuhiro Yoshikawa, and Hiroomi Akashi
Author affiliations: University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (S. Watanabe, N. Ueda, K. Iha, S. Taniguchi, H. Fujii, S. Tsuda, M. Endoh, K. Kato, S. Kyuwa, Y. Yoshikawa, H. Akashi); University of the Philippines Los Baños, Laguna, the Philippines (J.S. Masangkay, P. Alviola); National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo (N. Nagata, S. Morikawa, T. Mizutani, S. Fukushi, T. Omatsu); and Nihon University, Kanagawa, Japan (Y. Tohya)

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Abstract
Fifty-two bats captured during July 2008 in the Philippines were tested by reverse transcription–PCR to detect bat coronavirus (CoV) RNA. The overall prevalence of virus RNA was 55.8%. We found 2 groups of sequences that belonged to group 1 (genus Alphacoronavirus) and group 2 (genus Betacoronavirus) CoVs. Phylogenetic analysis of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene showed that groups 1 and 2 CoVs were similar to Bat-CoV/China/A515/2005 (95% nt sequence identity) and Bat-CoV/HKU9–1/China/2007 (83% identity), respectively. To propagate group 2 CoVs obtained from a lesser dog-faced fruit bat (Cynopterus brachyotis), we administered intestine samples orally to Leschenault rousette bats (Rousettus leschenaulti) maintained in our laboratory. After virus replication in the bats was confirmed, an additional passage of the virus was made in Leschenault rousette bats, and bat pathogenesis was investigated. Fruit bats infected with virus did not show clinical signs of infection.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is a newly emerged zoonotic CoV that caused an international epidemic in 2003. Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that the first human cases of SARS were caused by CoVs closely related to those found in Himalayan palm civets and raccoon dogs in wildlife markets (1 ). This finding accelerated surveys of CoVs specific for various animals in Southeast Asia to identify reservoirs for SARS-CoV. These survey findings suggested that palm civets and raccoon dogs are an intermediate host of, but not a primary reservoir for, SARS-CoV because of the low prevalence of SARS-like CoVs in these animals (2 ). Moreover, a large variety of novel CoVs in these surveys, including bat SARS–like CoVs, were detected in many bat species in the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (3–6 ).

Phylogenetic analysis of bat CoVs and other known CoVs suggested that the progenitor of SARS-CoV and all other CoVs in other animal hosts originated in bats (5,7 ). Recently, bat CoVs in North and South America, Europe, and Africa were also reported (8 –12 ). Although extensive bat surveys have been conducted, no infectious bat CoVs have been isolated from cell cultures, which hinders characterization of bat CoVs and evaluation of the risks posed by these viruses to public health.

In this study, we detected bat CoVs in the Philippines. We attempted to isolate bat CoVs and virus RNA from cell cultures and from Leschenault rousette bats (Rousettus leschenaulti) orally infected with intestinal tissues and contents from a lesser dog-faced fruit bat (Cynopterus brachyotis). After infection, clinical signs of infected bats were examined, and pathogenesis in bats was investigated.

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Suggested Citation for this Article
Suggested citation for this article: Watanabe S, Masangkay JS, Nagata N, Morikawa S, Mizutani T, Fukushi S, et al. Bat coronaviruses and experimental infection of bats, the Philippines. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2010 Aug [date cited]. http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/16/8/1217.htm

DOI: 10.3201/eid1608.100208