miércoles, 30 de enero de 2013

Ebola Virus Antibodies in Fruit Bats, Bangladesh - Vol. 19 No. 2 - February 2013 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

full-text ►
Ebola Virus Antibodies in Fruit Bats, Bangladesh - Vol. 19 No. 2 - February 2013 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

Georges de La Tour (1593‒1652) La Femme à la puce (The Flea Catcher) (1638) Oil on canvas (90 cm × 120 cm) Musée Lorrain, Nancy. Photo P. Mignot

Ebola Virus Antibodies in Fruit Bats, Bangladesh

The Study

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

References

Table 1

Table 2

Suggested Citation

Kevin J. Olival

, Ariful Islam, Meng Yu, Simon J. Anthony, Jonathan H. Epstein, Shahneaz Ali Khan, Salah Uddin Khan, Gary Crameri, Lin-Fa Wang, W. Ian Lipkin, Stephen P. Luby, and Peter Daszak

Author affiliations: Author affiliations: EcoHealth Alliance, New York, New York, USA (K.J. Olival, A. Islam, S.J. Anthony, J.H. Epstein, P. Daszak); Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Australian Animal Health Laboratory, Geelong, Victoria, Australia (M. Yu, G. Crameri, L.-F. Wang); Duke–National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School, Singapore (L.-F. Wang); Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chittagong, Bangladesh (S.A. Khan); International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh (S.U. Khan, S.P. Luby); Columbia University, New York, New York, USA (W.I. Lipkin)

Abstract

To determine geographic range for Ebola virus, we tested 276 bats in Bangladesh. Five (3.5%) bats were positive for antibodies against Ebola Zaire and Reston viruses; no virus was detected by PCR. These bats might be a reservoir for Ebola or Ebola-like viruses, and extend the range of filoviruses to mainland Asia.

Filoviruses are zoonotic pathogens that cause episodic, lethal, hemorrhagic outbreaks among humans and nonhuman primates and case-fatality rates up to 80% (1). The family Filoviridae contains 2 genera: Marburgvirus, which contains Marburg virus (MARV), and Ebolavirus, which contains 4 viruses: Zaire Ebola virus (ZEBOV), Sudan Ebola virus, Reston Ebola virus (REBOV), and Côte d’Ivoire Ebola virus, and 2 tentative species (Bundibugyo Ebola virus and Lloviu Ebola virus) (2,3). Pathogenicity varies among Ebola viruses, from ZEBOV, which is highly lethal in humans, to REBOV, which causes disease in pigs and macaques but asymptomatically infects humans.
Despite their role in human disease, natural reservoirs of filoviruses have remained elusive for decades. Reports suggest that bats (Order Chiroptera) are the primary natural hosts, including Old World insectivorous bats (genera Rhinolophus and Miniopterus) and frugivorous bats (family Pteropodidae). Fruit bats of the genus Rousettus have been implicated as a reservoir of filoviruses in Africa (4–7) and REBOV in the Philippines (8). Lloviu Ebola virus was detected in Miniopterus schreibersii insectivorous bats from Spain and appears to cause pathologic changes in this species but is not known to infect humans (2). These studies point to a wide, and still poorly described, geographic distribution for viruses of the family Filoviridae in chiropteran hosts. We screened bats of several species from Bangladesh for Ebola virus infection to determine whether the geographic range of this virus extends to southern Asia.