Novel Lyssavirus in Bat, Spain

Nidia Aréchiga Ceballos¹

, Sonia Vázquez Morón¹, José M. Berciano, Olga Nicolás, Carolina Aznar López, Javier Juste, Cristina Rodríguez Nevado, Álvaro Aguilar Setién, and Juan E. Echevarría

Author affiliations: Centro Nacional de Microbiología, Madrid, Spain (N. Aréchiga Ceballos, S. Vázquez Morón, J.M. Berciano, C. Aznar López, C. Rodríguez Nevado, J E. Echevarría); Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, Mexico City, Mexico (N. Aréchiga Ceballos, Á. Aguilar Setién); Centro de Recuperación de Fauna de Vallcalent, Catalonia, Spain (O. Nicolás); Estación Biológica de Doñana, Andalucia, Spain (J. Juste); Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Madrid (C. Rodríguez Nevado); Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Madrid (S. Vázquez Morón, J.M. Berciano, C. Aznar López, J.E. Echevarría)

Abstract

A new tentative lyssavirus, Lleida bat lyssavirus, was found in a bent-winged bat (Miniopterus schreibersii) in Spain. It does not belong to phylogroups I or II, and it seems to be more closely related to the West Causasian bat virus, and especially to the Ikoma lyssavirus.

Bats have been considered natural hosts of a wide diversity of viruses, including human pathogens such as lyssaviruses, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, henipavirus, and filoviruses (1). Within the genus Lyssavirus, 12 species have been described: Rabies virus (RABV), Lagos bat virus (LBV), Mokola virus (MOKV), Duvenhage virus (DUVV), European bat lyssavirus types 1 and 2 (EBLV-1 and -2), Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV), Aravan virus (ARAV), Khujand virus (KHUV), Irkut virus (IRKV), West Causasian bat virus (WCBV), and Shimoni bat virus (SHIBV). Two more recently described viruses have not yet been classified: Bokeloh bat lyssavirus (BBLV) (2) and Ikoma lyssavirus (IKOV) (3).
Bats are the natural reservoirs for most lyssaviruses, and to our knowledge, only MOKV and IKOV have never been detected in bats. RABV is the only virus known to establish epidemiologic cycles in bats and carnivores, and it is responsible for most human infections, mainly transmitted by dogs. The genus Lyssavirus comprises at least 2 phylogroups: phylogroup I (RABV, DUVV, EBLV1–2, ABLV, ARAV, IRKV, BBLV, KHUV) and phylogroup II (LBV, MOKV, and SHIBV). Phylogroup III consists of WCBV (4). According to a recent phylogenetic reconstruction that included the novel IKOV and was based on a fragment of 405 nt from the nucleoprotein gene, IKOV has proven to be highly divergent (3) and probably also forms part of phylogroup III.
During 1977–2011 in Europe, 988 cases of bat rabies were reported to the Rabies Bulletin Europe. Bats of the species Eptesicus serotinus and E. isabellinus, which account for >95% of cases, are considered the major natural reservoirs of EBLV-1. Several bat species within the genus Myotis are reservoirs for EBLV-2, BBLV, and the central Asian lyssaviruses ARAV and KHUV (5). WCBV has been isolated in the common bent-winged bat Miniopterus schreibersii (6). Other bat species might act as eventual hosts, although in Spain, bat rabies has been declared only in E. isabellinus bats (7). The possibility of a wider host range has been suggested by some surveys on natural bat colonies of other bat species describing neutralizing antibodies and genomic fragments related to EBLV-1 (8).